Chapter 4 - The Hidden Passage
Maria felt a cold sweat break out across her forehead.
Whoever wrote the note was standing right outside their door.
It meant the traitor was not just Leo.
There was a second mole inside the house.
Sophie tugged on the hem of Maria's uniform.
"Mommy, it is too dark in here."
Maria remembered something from her first week of cleaning the grand estate.
She had accidentally pushed a loose brick in the back of this very vault, revealing an old prohibition-era ventilation shaft.
She dropped to her knees and felt along the cold stone wall.
Her fingers found the loose brick.
She pushed it hard, and a small metal grate swung open with a quiet squeak.
"Crawl in there, baby," Maria whispered.
Sophie held onto her plastic stethoscope and crawled into the dusty tunnel.
Maria squeezed in right behind her, pulling the grate closed just as the main vault door began to unlock.
They crawled in total darkness for three long minutes.
The tunnel ended at another vent looking down into the estate's private medical bay.
Maria peered through the metal slats.
Below them, Doctor Evans was standing over Alexei's motionless body.
May you like
The doctor was filling a large syringe with a glowing yellow liquid.
"Sorry, Alexei, but the Romano family pays much better," the doctor whispered to the unconscious man.
