Chapter 6 - The Rescue
The door swung heavy on its hinges.
Inside the small, windowless room, Maya Reed was huddled in the corner on a small cot, wrapped in a thin blanket. She looked up, her eyes wide with terror, expecting to see Victor Blackwood coming to finish the job.
Instead, she saw the groundskeeper.
“Silas?” she gasped, her voice hoarse and broken.
“I have him, Maya,” Silas said immediately, dropping to his knees beside her. “Your boy is safe. He’s with your mother at the logging camp. They are both safe.”
Maya broke down. The stoic, fierce facade she had maintained for nine grueling months finally shattered. She sobbed, grabbing Silas’s heavy winter coat, burying her face in his shoulder as tears of absolute relief poured from her eyes.
“We have to move, Maya,” Silas said gently, pulling her to her feet. “Victor will realize the guards are down any minute. Can you walk?”
“To get to my son?” Maya said, a sudden, fierce strength returning to her frail frame. “I’ll run.”
They stepped out of the cell and hurried back toward the steam tunnels. But as they reached the access door, a blaring, deafening siren echoed through the underground corridors. Red strobe lights began flashing along the ceiling.
They had been discovered.
“Vance!” a voice roared from the far end of the hallway.
May you like
Silas spun around. Marcus Blackwood was standing at the end of the corridor, flanked by four heavily armed mercenaries. Marcus was holding an assault rifle, his face twisted in absolute, murderous rage.
“I knew you were a rat, Vance,” Marcus spat, raising his weapon. “Kill them both.”
