Chapter 15 - Two Minutes
Adrian tore his shirt off and wrapped it over the ventilation slot while Mara found towels in a cleaning cart. The boy, Eli, stared at the flashing timer.
“Are we gonna die?” he asked.
“No,” Mara said. “You're going to tell me your favorite dinosaur.”
“Stegosaurus.”
“Great choice. Tell Sophie everything you know about it.”
His small voice began, hesitant, then stronger. Adrian fought with a maintenance panel, sweat sliding down his face.
“Lucian, open something.”
“I'm trying. Celeste locked the controls out.”
“Then use the manual release.”
“The release is on your side. Behind the breaker cabinet.”
Mara found it, a red metal handle behind a rusted grate. She pulled. Nothing happened.
“Again,” Adrian said.
She planted both feet and hauled until her shoulders burned. The handle snapped down. One shutter lifted three inches, then jammed.
“That's enough,” Adrian said.
“For a mouse.”
“For kids.”
He dropped flat and pushed Sophie under the gap to Lucian, who'd reached the other side through a stairwell. Eli followed, sobbing. Mara pressed him forward and felt Lucian pull him clear.
“Your turn,” Adrian said.
“Yours first.”
“Not negotiating.”
She lay on her stomach and wriggled beneath the steel. Her dress caught on a jagged screw. Adrian ripped the fabric free, leaving green satin in his hand.
The timer showed thirty seconds.
“Adrian!” Mara cried.
He slid under just as the building's alarm announced a toxic release. They stumbled up the stairs with a child in each set of arms.
Outside, June stood beside an unmarked ambulance. Real paramedics rushed forward. Sophie clung to Mara's neck until a woman in scrubs called her name.
“Mom!”
The reunion hit Mara harder than the smoke. Sophie's mother fell to her knees, crying into her daughter's hair. Eli's parents hadn't been found yet.
June waved Adrian closer. “I copied the holding-room server before the shutdown. It includes transfer manifests.”
“Enough to get Celeste?”
“Maybe. But I found something else.”
She turned the laptop toward him. On the latest manifest was a child's photograph and a destination marked PRIVATE AIRFIELD, 11:30 P.M.
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Under STATUS, one word blinked in red: DEPARTED.
THE LAST DANCE AT BLACKTHORN HALL •
