Chapter 14 - FORTY-SEVEN MINUTES
Rafe hated every part of Evelyn's plan.
That was becoming a useful sign.
The freight tunnel beneath Site 4 had been sealed with concrete after Daniel escaped in 2015.
But the old storm drain beside it still connected to the building's mechanical level.
The opening was eighteen inches high.
Evelyn looked at it.
"I preferred the dumbwaiter."
Rafe handed her gloves.
"You are smaller than the rest of us."
"That sounds like punishment for healthy eating."
Daniel crouched beside the drain.
"I go first."
"No."
Evelyn looked at him.
"You do not know the current layout."
"Neither do you."
"I know what a camera looks like."
"Evie."
"You lost the right to parent me for fourteen years."
The words hurt him.
She did not take them back.
Marian placed a hand on Daniel's shoulder.
"Let her go."
Evelyn crawled into the drain.
Cold water soaked her sleeves.
The concrete tunnel narrowed after twenty feet.
She pushed forward on elbows and knees.
Above her, pipes vibrated.
At the first grate, she stopped.
A maintenance room lay beyond.
Empty.
She removed two screws with Rafe's tool and slid inside.
Then she opened an exterior service hatch for the others.
Rafe joined her first.
Daniel and Marian stayed in the truck with the drives.
That was the compromise.
Evelyn and Rafe moved through the mechanical level.
Celeste remained on the phone through a wired earpiece with no location services.
"Second corridor has a camera at the corner," Celeste whispered.
Evelyn saw it.
"How do you know?"
"I helped renovate the site."
"Of course you did."
"Do you want commentary or directions?"
"Both help me stay irritated."
Celeste almost laughed.
It was strange enough to make Evelyn uncomfortable.
Rafe disabled the camera feed with a loop from the control box.
They reached a stairwell.
Voices sounded above.
Two guards.
Evelyn whispered.
"Can we avoid them?"
"Not if we want level two."
Rafe waited until one guard entered the stairwell.
He pulled him behind the door and rendered him unconscious with a chokehold.
The second guard came looking.
Evelyn threw a metal bolt down the opposite corridor.
The guard turned toward the sound.
Rafe disarmed him without firing.
They tied both men inside a utility closet.
"You do that often?" Evelyn asked.
"Less often than movies suggest."
"Good."
"It looked exhausting."
Celeste's voice came through the earpiece.
"Lorenzo is in Interview Three."
"Shaw and Salvatore are with him."
Evelyn stopped.
"How do you know that now?"
"I still have access to one internal camera."
"Why?"
"Because Shaw thinks I am running."
"Are you?"
A pause.
"I do not know yet."
They reached level two.
Rafe checked his watch.
Thirty-three minutes.
The demolition system was housed in the security room on level one.
Lorenzo was on level two.
They could not do both at once.
Evelyn made the decision.
"You go to the demolition controls."
Rafe stared at her.
"No."
"I can get Lorenzo out."
"You are unarmed."
"That is why they will underestimate me."
"This is not a restaurant."
"No."
Evelyn looked at him.
"But men with power still forget to look at the waitress."
Rafe swore softly.
"Lorenzo will kill me."
"Only if we save him."
That argument worked.
They split.
Evelyn took a janitor's coat from an open supply room.
She pushed a cart down the corridor with her head lowered.
At Interview Three, a guard stood outside.
Evelyn approached.
"Leak downstairs."
The guard barely looked at her.
"Not my problem."
"Security says water is entering the electrical room."
That got him.
He leaned toward his radio.
Evelyn sprayed him in the face with industrial degreaser.
He shouted and grabbed his eyes.
She hit the panic bar of the door with the cart.
The door opened.
Lorenzo looked up from the steel table.
Shaw and Salvatore turned.
For one perfect second, nobody understood what they were seeing.
Evelyn raised the guard's stolen radio.
"Fire alarm."
Then she slammed it into the wall alarm box.
Sirens erupted.
Sprinklers activated throughout the corridor.
Shaw stood.
"You."
Lorenzo smiled.
"She does have timing."
Salvatore reached inside his jacket.
Evelyn threw the degreaser bottle at his face.
He flinched.
Lorenzo moved.
His cuffed hands came over the table and struck Shaw beneath the jaw.
Shaw fell backward.
Salvatore drew a pistol.
Evelyn kicked the table leg.
The steel table slid into him.
The shot went into the ceiling.
Lorenzo grabbed Salvatore's wrist and slammed it against the edge.
The gun dropped.
Evelyn picked it up.
She had never held a real pistol before.
It was heavier than she expected.
She pointed it at Salvatore.
"Do not make me learn quickly."
Salvatore looked at her and smiled.
"Daniel's daughter."
"I expected more."
"People keep doing that."
Lorenzo held up his cuffs.
"Keys."
Evelyn searched the stunned guard outside.
Found them.
Freed him.
Shaw recovered near the wall.
"You have no idea what you are doing."
Evelyn looked at him.
"I am interrupting a kidnapping."
"That part feels clear."
Shaw laughed.
"Kidnapping?"
"He was lawfully detained."
Lorenzo rubbed his wrists.
"Lawfully detained in a building wired to explode?"
Shaw's eyes flickered.
He had not expected Lorenzo to know.
Evelyn saw it.
"Celeste told us."
Salvatore cursed.
Shaw looked at him.
There was the fracture again.
"You told her?"
Salvatore's voice sharpened.
"I did not know."
Lorenzo stepped between them.
"How comforting."
The lights switched from white to red.
A recorded voice announced evacuation.
Twenty-four minutes.
Rafe's voice came over Evelyn's earpiece.
"I found the system."
"Bad news."
"It is not local."
"Meaning?"
"Remote trigger is active."
"I can interrupt it, but someone is holding a dead-man authorization outside the building."
Celeste answered.
"Shaw's driver."
"Black sedan behind the east fence."
Evelyn looked at Lorenzo.
"We need the driver."
Shaw smiled.
"You need more than that."
Lorenzo hit him.
Not wildly.
Once.
Shaw dropped to one knee.
"That was for Matteo."
Salvatore moved toward the door.
Evelyn raised the gun.
"Stay."
He looked at her.
"You will not shoot me."
"I really hope you are right."
"But I would rather not test it."
Lorenzo picked up Shaw's folder.
Inside were the transfer documents.
He tore them in half.
Then again.
"Continuity problem."
The building announcement counted down twenty minutes to systems shutdown.
They moved Shaw and Salvatore into the corridor.
Two more guards appeared.
Lorenzo used Salvatore as cover.
"Weapons down."
One obeyed.
The other hesitated until Shaw shouted.
"Do it."
Evelyn realized Shaw wanted to survive more than he wanted to win this minute.
That could be used.
They reached the stairwell.
Rafe met them on level one.
"Charges are in the foundation columns."
"I disabled six."
"There are twelve."
Lorenzo looked at Shaw.
"Codes."
"I do not have them."
"Wrong answer."
Shaw stared at him.
"The system belongs to Janus."
"Not me."
Salvatore laughed.
"He is telling the truth."
Everyone looked at him.
"Who has the codes?" Evelyn asked.
Salvatore smiled.
"Celeste."
The earpiece went silent.
Evelyn touched it.
"Celeste?"
No answer.
Rafe looked at the timer.
Seventeen minutes.
Lorenzo took Evelyn's earpiece.
"Celeste."
Still nothing.
Then her voice returned.
"I have the codes."
Lorenzo's expression hardened.
"Then send them."
"I will."
"After you bring my mother to me."
Marian heard through Daniel's phone in the truck.
Her face went white.
Evelyn closed her eyes.
Of course.
Even now, Celeste needed control.
"This is not the time," Evelyn said.
"It is the only time."
Celeste's voice shook.
"Everyone has used me for twenty years."
"Shaw."
"Victor."
"Salvatore."
"My mother."
"Lorenzo."
"You."
Evelyn's anger rose.
"I met you two days ago."
"And you changed everything."
"That is not the same as using you."
"Bring her."
The timer passed sixteen minutes.
Marian's voice came through the phone.
"Celeste."
Silence.
"I am here."
Celeste inhaled sharply.
Marian continued.
"I will come to you."
Daniel said no in the background.
Marian ignored him.
"But you send the codes first."
"Why should I trust you?"
Marian closed her eyes.
"You should not."
"Not yet."
"Trust what I do next."
A message arrived on Rafe's device.
Twelve override codes.
He entered them one by one.
The demolition timer stopped at nine minutes, forty-three seconds.
Nobody breathed for a moment.
Rafe checked all circuits.
"Charges isolated."
Evelyn leaned against the wall.
Her legs nearly gave out.
Lorenzo caught her elbow.
"You came back."
She looked at him.
"You made it inconvenient not to."
His hand remained on her arm longer than necessary.
Then a gunshot sounded behind them.
Salvatore staggered.
Blood spread across his shoulder.
Shaw held a pistol taken from a fallen guard.
He pointed it at Salvatore again.
"You should have stayed retired."
Lorenzo moved toward him.
Shaw backed toward the east exit.
"Stop."
Rafe raised his weapon.
Shaw grabbed Salvatore by the collar and used him as a shield.
"You cannot expose Janus with two old men telling different stories."
Evelyn held up the surviving drive.
"Good thing we have paperwork."
Shaw's eyes locked on it.
That was the mistake.
Lorenzo struck his wrist.
The gun fired into the floor.
Rafe tackled Shaw.
Salvatore collapsed against the wall.
For a moment, it looked finished.
Then the east doors burst open.
A tactical team flooded the corridor.
Federal markings.
Real or fake, nobody knew.
A commander shouted.
"Weapons down!"
Everyone froze.
Shaw looked up from the floor and smiled through blood on his lip.
"Finally."
The commander removed his helmet.
Evelyn recognized him from the third ledger.
Deputy U.S. Marshal Peter Kline.
Name marked JANUS - REPLACEMENT.
He looked at Shaw.
Then at Lorenzo.
Then at the drive in Evelyn's hand.
"Ms. Carter."
His voice was calm.
"Give me the evidence."
Evelyn understood.
The building had not been the final trap.
May you like
The rescue was.
