Chapter 98 - The Scent of Kerosene
Before Vance could raise his weapon to demand he open the gate, Julian turned and vanished into the darkness of the outer service tunnel. His heavy footsteps faded toward the riverbank, leaving behind only the cold draft that whistled through the iron bars.
"Vance! The gate!" Clara yelled, rattling the heavy bars with all her strength.
"Stand back!" Vance ordered, taking two paces back and leveling his service weapon at the heavy padlock mechanism. He fired twice, the deafening cracks of the gunshots echoing violently off the stone walls, filling the cellar with the acrid smell of cordite and flying lead chips. The lock shuddered, but the antique iron casing was four inches thick and refused to give way.
Then, from the ventilation shaft directly above our heads, the unmistakable scent hit us—sharp, pungent, and overwhelming.
"Kerosene," I gasped, coughing as the fumes began to pool in the low-ceilinged vault. "He’s dumping the storage tanks into the subfloor!"
"The east wing," Clara cried, her face white with horror. "The old heating system was fed by two five-hundred-gallon kerosene tanks under the library. If he ignites the gravity feed, the entire manor will go up like a tinderbox in three minutes!"
"And Lily and Caleb are right outside the driveway!" I screamed, panic threatening to tear through my composure.
We could hear the dull, muffled roar of a flame catching somewhere above us. The faint crackle of dry pine framing catching fire began to vibrate through the stone ceiling, accompanied by the muffled wail of the manor’s mechanical alarm bells ringing from the roofline.
Vance ran back to the ventilation grate near the cot. "Katherine! Help me with this iron grating! It’s an old coal chute—it leads out to the garden well behind the kitchen!"
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The two of us grabbed the rusted crossbars of the coal chute, hauling with everything we had. Our muscles burned, the iron digging painfully into our fingers as the acrid smoke began to drift down through the floorboards above. From outside, the distant sound of an engine revving violently tore through the night.
Caleb had seen the smoke.
