Chapter 16 - The Dark House
The backup generators should have switched on in eight seconds.
They did not.
Nico heard the silence before he understood it.
No ventilation hum.
"Marcus!"
"Main power was cut at the external transformer. Backup generator isn't responding."
"Sabotage?"
"Has to be."
"Mila."
Sienna followed despite Nico ordering her to stay downstairs.
"He hit me," she whispered.
"No," Sienna said.
"He came through the staff wing."
"Find her."
"We will."
"Don't tell me we will. Find my baby."
Nico turned to Marcus. "Lock every gate manually. Nobody gets out."
But he did not know what Nico had added after a kidnapping threat twelve years earlier.
A sealed emergency tunnel ran from the lower wine cellar to an old caretaker cottage near the south boundary.
"I told Gavin about that tunnel."
"When?"
"Years ago. I thought it was funny."
At the wine cellar, the concealed tunnel door was open.
"Mila."
"Radios are being jammed."
"We go now."
Halfway through, they heard a child crying.
"Slow. He may be waiting."
"That's my daughter."
"And your son. Both need you alive."
"Sienna?"
"I'm right here," he called. "Come alone and Mila walks out with you."
Nico whispered, "No."
Sienna whispered back, "He wants me."
"He wants control."
"Five seconds, Sienna! Then I take her through the south gate and you never see her again!"
Mila cried, "Mommy!"
Sienna stepped forward.
Nico reached for her.
She looked at him.
May you like
"Trust me once."
Then she walked into the darkness alone.
