Chapter 7 - The Hidden Truth
Nathaniel crashed onto a hard dirt floor, the wind knocked completely out of his lungs.
The flashlight on his phone flickered and died, leaving him in absolute pitch black.
"Nathaniel!" Grace's voice echoed distantly from above.
"I'm alive!" he shouted back, struggling to sit up.
He patted his pockets and found a silver engraved lighter his father had given him.
He flicked it open, and a small flame illuminated the hidden room.
It was not just a sub-basement.
It was an underground vault filled with wooden crates and filing cabinets.
Nathaniel forced open one of the crates and stared in absolute shock.
It was packed to the brim with illegal, untraceable military-grade weapons.
Marcus was not just laundering money; he was running an international arms smuggling ring out of Nathaniel's properties.
"Nathaniel, the fire department is here!" Grace yelled from the coal chute.
"They are dropping a rope!"
Nathaniel grabbed a handful of shipping manifests from the nearest cabinet to serve as absolute proof.
He stuffed them into his jacket and hurried toward the faint light shining from the hole in the ceiling.
A thick rescue rope dropped down, dangling a few feet above his head.
He jumped, caught the rope, and wrapped it securely around his waist.
"Pull!" he yelled.
The firefighters hoisted him up through the narrow, scorching shaft.
He emerged onto the street, gasping for fresh, cool air as paramedics rushed toward him.
Grace threw her arms around his neck, burying her face in his smoke-stained shirt.
He hugged her back fiercely, realizing in that moment how much he cared for her.
The FBI agents were busy cataloging the massive weapons cache discovered below the building.
Marcus Thorne was sitting handcuffed in the back of a federal vehicle, his arrogant smirk entirely gone.
Eleanor walked over, looking at her son with immense pride.
"You saved them, Nathaniel," she said softly.
May you like
Then, a frantic federal agent ran up to them, his face pale.
"Mr. Ashford, the suspect Marcus Thorne is missing from the transport vehicle, and so is the little girl, Lucy."
