Chapter 8 - The Chemical Distraction
The maintenance tunnel was pitch black, smelling of damp earth and old copper pipes.
I blindly followed Emily, keeping one hand on the rough stone wall while holding Noah tightly with the other.
My son was incredibly quiet, his tiny body exhausted by the trauma of the freezing water and the poison.
Above us, the heavy boots of the fake paramedics pounded against the hardwood floors of my mansion.
They were executing the remaining household staff methodically, searching every room for the billionaire and his heir.
"The garage is at the end of this corridor, but it is locked with a biometric scanner," I whispered into the darkness.
"They will hear the scanner chime the moment I use it."
Emily stopped walking, turning back toward me in the narrow tunnel.
"Then we need to give them something much louder to listen to," she replied.
She pulled a small flashlight from her uniform pocket and illuminated a dusty utility closet cut into the tunnel wall.
The shelves were lined with heavy industrial cleaning supplies, bleach, and pure ammonia.
"Hold the light," Emily instructed, taking the flashlight from my hand and giving it back to me.
She moved with incredible speed, pouring thick gallons of bleach into a massive plastic mop bucket.
She grabbed three bottles of ammonia and carefully arranged them precariously on the top shelf right above the bucket.
She tied a long piece of twine to the bottles, creating a crude but effective tripwire.
"Chloramine gas and a highly explosive exothermic reaction," Emily explained coldly.
"When they open this door, the blast will take out the entire corridor."
We ran to the end of the tunnel, stopping in front of the heavy steel garage door.
I pressed my thumb against the biometric scanner.
The device chimed loudly, a sharp electronic beep that echoed straight down the dark tunnel.
Instantly, a heavy flashlight beam cut through the darkness from the other end.
"They are down here!" a mercenary shouted, charging toward us.
He hit the tripwire Emily had strung across the narrow walkway.
The bottles of ammonia crashed into the bucket of bleach.
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The resulting chemical explosion was absolutely deafening, sending a massive fireball rolling down the enclosed tunnel.
The heavy steel door slid open just in time, and we threw ourselves into the hidden garage as the explosion consumed our pursuers.
