Chapter 13 - The Ammonia Valve
"Luke!" I screamed, stepping past Mrs. Harris despite the pistol leveled at my chest. "That's your sister! That's your niece!"
Luke didn't turn around through the double-paned observation window. His knuckles were white against the brass wheel of the main liquid line valve.
"He can't hear you through three inches of insulated vacuum glass, Mark," Mrs. Harris said, taking two slow steps sideways to keep her line of fire clear. "And even if he could, Luke owes me four hundred thousand dollars in clean cash to get him across the border to Costa Rica. He doesn't have room in his budget for family sentiments."
"What do you want?"
"The girl speaks into the recorder, the files unlock, and you and Sarah can take your little family tragedy and bury it wherever you want," she said. "Refuse, and Luke opens that liquid valve. Ten gallons of pure anhydrous ammonia will flood that sealed chamber in about fifteen seconds. Their lungs will dissolve before you can find a crowbar."
The sheer cold was already numbing my face, but a different kind of calculation kicked into my head.
I knew this room. I knew this refrigeration system.
It was an old Frick two-stage reciprocating ammonia package from the late nineties.
"The valve is reversed," I said out loud, keeping my voice completely level.
Mrs. Harris frowned slightly, the barrel of her gun dipping an inch. "What did you say?"
"That high-pressure bypass Luke is holding," I pointed at the pipes above the window. "It’s an inverted-seat gate valve. If he turns it clockwise like a normal faucet, he isn't venting it into the room. He’s closing the loop and building head pressure straight back into the main compressor behind you."
"Don't play games with me, Mark."
"I don't need to play games," I said, taking half a step backward toward the main electrical distribution panel behind me. "I built this exact system in 2018."
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I didn't wait for her to process it. I hurled the heavy four-pound pipe wrench with all my strength straight at the primary freon pressure gauge mounted above the compressor manifold.
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