Chapter 14 - The Flood

Water battered the lower doors, cold and black as the harbor outside. Ethan carried the relay box while Mia, Ada, and Claire raced toward the stairwell. Above them, security shutters dropped one by one.

“Eli's opening the flood gates,” Nora said through the radio. “I'm trying to reach him.”

“Where are you?” Ethan demanded.

“In the museum basement. Victor's double locked us in.”

“His what?”

“The man who met me isn't Victor.”

Ethan felt his jaw tighten. There was no center to the nightmare, only more doors.

Mia connected the band to an access terminal. A green light flashed and the original recordings began copying onto the transmitter. Jasmine's voice crackled through the radio: “I can see them. Keep sending.”

Then the signal slowed.

“Water's shorting the power,” Ada said.

Ethan looked around the room. A diesel backup generator stood behind a mesh partition, its starter cord dangling beside a warning sign. He forced the cage open and hauled the cord. Once. Twice. On the third pull it caught, rumbling to life.

The upload bar climbed.

From the staircase came a man in a tactical vest with Eli's face. He raised a gun and aimed at Mia.

“Hands up.”

Claire stepped between them. “I know you,” she said. “We trained together.”

“Move.”

“You don't have to do this.”

He hesitated. Just long enough for Ada to slam a valve wheel against his arm. The gun skidded into rising water. Ethan knocked him backward and tied his wrists with an electrical cable.

The upload hit ninety-nine percent. The generator coughed. Mia held her palm against the monitor, willing it to finish.

Jasmine shouted, “It's through! I have the originals!”

At once, every light went out. Water blasted through the stairwell door, throwing them across the room.

Ethan grabbed Mia's wrist. Ada caught Claire's. They fought their way onto a maintenance ladder as the room disappeared under the flood.

Near the ceiling, Ethan found a hatch sealed by a manual wheel. He turned until his muscles screamed, but it would not move.

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Through the darkness, Mia said, “Ethan, there's something you have to know about Mom.”

Below them, a hand rose out of the water and seized his ankle.