Chapter 4 - The Underground Escape
The red laser sights danced across our chests in the freezing darkness of the warehouse.
I knew Sterling would absolutely kill us the second I handed over the encrypted flash drive.
Marisol pointed to a heavy iron grate set deeply into the concrete floor beneath our feet.
She recognized the grate from her years of reviewing structural blueprints for commercial cleaning crews.
It was an old maintenance access tunnel that connected directly to the city's active subway system.
I grabbed the heavy iron handle and pulled with all the remaining strength in my body.
The rusted grate screamed in protest but finally swung open to reveal a pitch-black vertical shaft.
I told Marisol to climb down the rusted ladder quickly and securely hold Renata in her arms.
As soon as they disappeared into the darkness, the helicopter snipers opened fire.
High-caliber bullets completely shredded the concrete floor right where we had been standing.
I dove headfirst into the narrow tunnel just as a bullet grazed the fabric of my suit jacket.
I pulled the heavy iron grate shut behind me and slid down the cold ladder into the absolute darkness.
We navigated the damp and rat-infested tunnels guided only by the faint light of Marisol's prepaid phone.
The distant rumble of an approaching subway train caused the ground beneath our feet to violently shake.
We finally reached a maintenance door and forced our way onto a crowded and brightly lit subway platform.
We blended into the late-night crowds of weary commuters to avoid drawing any unwanted attention.
I checked the geographic coordinates Julia had hidden in her encrypted video message.
The numbers pointed to an old and abandoned lighthouse located fifty miles away on the rugged Texas coastline.
We needed a vehicle to get out of the city without triggering any modern license plate scanners.
Marisol led us to a shady impound lot run by a mechanic she used to know from her old neighborhood.
She traded her last gold necklace to the mechanic in exchange for a rusted and untraceable pickup truck.
We drove out of the city limits while a heavy and terrifying silence hung in the cabin of the truck.
Renata fell asleep in her mother's arms, completely exhausted by the endless trauma of the night.
The storm outside intensified, turning the coastal highway into a dangerous and slippery nightmare.
I drove relentlessly until the towering silhouette of the abandoned lighthouse finally appeared on the jagged cliffs.
We parked the truck in the dense brush and approached the rotting wooden door of the lighthouse.
I pushed the door open and called out Julia's name into the dark and dusty spiral staircase.
A single lantern flickered to life at the very top of the towering structure.
May you like
We climbed the exhausting stairs until we reached the glass observation deck overlooking the raging ocean.
Julia was standing there holding a loaded shotgun aimed directly at my heart.
