Chapter 11 - The Water Rises—The Escape Hatch
The computerized voice echoed through the red-lit vault.
“Fail-safe engaged. Vault flooding initiated to protect physical ledgers.”
Massive steel grates in the ceiling suddenly blew open. Thousands of gallons of freezing East River water began pouring into the subterranean vault at a terrifying speed.
Within seconds, the water was up to our ankles.
Julian completely lost his mind. He grabbed me by the throat, slamming me against the destroyed terminal. “I’ll kill you! I’ll drown you myself!”
I drove my knee upward into his stomach, breaking his grip. “You’re drowning anyway, Julian!”
I spun away from him and waded through the rapidly rising water toward Ellie and Leo. The water was already up to their waists. They were screaming, terrified of the roaring cascade filling the room.
Vanessa was pounding frantically on the locked blast doors, completely ignoring the boy she had supposedly raised. “Let me out! Help me!”
“Mara!” Julian roared, raising his revolver.
He aimed straight at my back, but before he could pull the trigger, a massive wave of rushing water knocked him off his feet. He dropped the gun, scrambling wildly in the freezing surge.
I grabbed Ellie in my left arm and Leo in my right.
I knew this vault. My father had shown me the blueprints when I was ten years old. There was an emergency pneumatic service hatch behind the executive elevator shaft, designed to expel documents in case of a fire.
The water was up to my chest. I fought against the current, dragging my children toward the back wall.
I found the heavy iron wheel of the hatch beneath the surface. I held my breath, dove under the freezing water, and pulled with every ounce of strength I had left.
The wheel turned. The hatch popped open, revealing a narrow, dry concrete tunnel that sloped upward.
I shoved Leo inside first, then pushed Ellie up behind him.
I pulled myself up onto the ledge just as the water level in the main vault reached the ceiling.
I looked back.
Vanessa was trapped against the glass, screaming silently as the water submerged her completely.
Julian was thrashing wildly in the center of the room, grasping for the ceiling grates. He locked eyes with me through the rising water. The arrogant king who had manipulated my entire life, drowning in the tomb he built for himself.
I slammed the heavy iron hatch shut, sealing the vault forever.
I collapsed onto the concrete floor of the tunnel, coughing up water, pulling my two crying children into my arms.
We were alive. Silas was dead. Grant was dead. Julian was dead. The money was gone.
We climbed the long tunnel for twenty minutes until we reached a grated exit. I kicked it open, and we emerged into the cold, rainy alleyway behind the skyscraper.
I fell to my knees, sobbing in pure relief. It was over.
But as I hugged my children, a black limousine silently pulled into the alley, blocking the exit.
The rear window rolled down.
Sitting in the back seat, surrounded by heavily armed men, was an older woman with sharp, aristocratic features and cold, calculating eyes.
My mother.
The woman who had been in a medically induced coma in Switzerland for the last five years.
“You made a mess of the vault, Mara,” my mother said smoothly. “But you did an excellent job retrieving my grandchildren.”
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