Chapter 10
The sedan careened back toward the municipal park with terrifying speed, its siren wailing a high-pitched warning that cut through the gray afternoon fog. Clara held onto Leo with all her strength, bracing herself against the door as the car took a sharp corner on two wheels.
"What happened at the vault?" Clara demanded, leaning forward between the front seats. "Who was inside?"
"Shut your mouth and hold your seatbelt!" Davies snapped, her eyes locked on the road ahead as the park’s entrance came back into view.
The scene had completely transformed in the ten minutes they had been gone. The wooden pavilion was now cordoned off with thick yellow police tape, and three more federal vehicles blocked the access road. At the center of the commotion stood investigator Vance, his trench coat splattered with dark, damp mud, staring blankly down at a heavy iron hatch set into the ground beneath the pavilion floorboards. The hatch was blown wide open, its thick steel bolt sheared completely in half from the inside out.
The sedan skidded to a halt, and Davies threw open her door, rushing out toward Vance without waiting to lock the transmission. Clara hesitated for a split second, then unbuckled her seatbelt, keeping Leo securely in her arms as she stepped out onto the damp grass.
"Vance! Status!" Davies shouted, jogging toward the open hatch.
Vance slowly looked up, his face pale, his hands trembling slightly as he pointed down into the dark, echoing abyss beneath the pavilion. "It wasn't a water valve, Marshal. It's an underground server farm. And someone just wiped every hard drive down there using an electromagnetic pulse charge."
"An EMP?" Davies stopped dead in her tracks, her face draining of color. "Who had the clearance codes for the EMP grid?"
Arthur was still sitting handcuffed in the back of the nearby cruiser, watching the unfolding chaos with a strange, eerie smile playing on his lips. He caught Clara’s eye through the tinted glass and gave a slow, deliberate nod—not of defeat, but of acknowledgment.
Clara felt a cold shiver run down her spine. Arthur hadn't been cornered at all. He had led them all here on purpose, stalling for time while someone else finished erasing the evidence from the underground vault.
May you like
Before anyone could react, Leo suddenly pointed down toward the open hatch with a trembling finger. "Mommy... look at the bottom of the ladder."
Clara squinted into the darkness of the subterranean shaft. Lying on the lowest rung of the metal ladder, half-submerged in muddy water, was a small, familiar white t-shirt covered in dark mud stains.
