Chapter 33 - BLOODLINE OF ASHES
The digital timer on the vault door illuminated in crimson numerals: *04:59... 04:58... 04:57.*
"She’s engaging the hydraulic purge," Grace shouted, rushing to the master control console. "The foundation sits on the lake's subterranean aquifer! She’s blowing the retention valves to drown this level while the fire consumes the upper manor!"
"Blow the lock!" Captain Walker yelled to his men.
The two troopers placed breaching charges against the edges of the steel bulkhead.
"Fire in the hole!"
*BOOM!*
The concussive blast within the enclosed room rattled their eardrums, but when the smoke cleared, the ballistic steel of the door was barely dented. Thomas Miller had built the room to survive an earthquake; commercial breaching charges couldn't breach four inches of solid armor plate.
Water began to hiss from the perimeter baseboards—a cold, torrential flood pouring from the high-pressure lake conduits. Within thirty seconds, the water was already sloshing over their boots, rising by an inch every ten seconds.
"Evan! Help me with this console!" Grace yelled, tearing the metal faceplate off the central junction box with a pry bar. "My father left a manual bypass! But it requires a dual-key override!"
"Where is the second key?" Evan asked, splashing through the freezing water to her side.
"Charles has one," Grace said, pointing to the key Evan held. "The other is inside the glass enclosure. It’s hardwired to Caroline’s life-support console!"
Evan looked at the sealed glass chamber. The digital lock on the medical room was flashing yellow.
*BIOMETRIC REQUIRED.*
"Evan, the scanner!" Grace pointed to the glass panel. "You share fifty percent of her genetic markers! Put your hand on the sensor!"
Evan pressed his palm against the blue illuminated glass.
*SCANNING... MATERNAL LINE DETECTED: 49.8%. ACCESS DENIED. REQUIRE AUTHORIZED SUCCESSOR (FEMALE).*
"It won't open!" Evan shouted, slamming his fist against the impenetrable glass. "It requires a direct female heir! It requires Sophie!"
The water was up to their knees now. The cold was biting, paralyzing. Across the glass barrier, the ventilator continued to pump air into the sleeping woman’s lungs, unaware of the rising tide outside her chamber.
"No," Grace said suddenly, her breath catching in her throat. She stepped toward the scanner, her face dead white.
"Grace? What are you doing?" Evan looked at her.
Grace looked at the dying Charles on the floor, then at the sleeping woman behind the glass, and finally at Evan.
"Evan... why do you think my father didn't run away after he built this bunker in 1994?"
Evan’s heart stopped. "What?"
May you like
"Why did Thomas Miller stay in this town, working as an ordinary carpenter, living in a small cottage, raising me alone without a mother?" Grace’s voice trembled with a terrifying revelation. "I never saw a photograph of my mother. My father told me she died giving birth to me in the winter of 1994."
***
