Chapter 69 – The Secret Compound
Part 1 – Isabelle’s POV
The air in the underground passage was heavy, stale, and laced with the metallic tang of old blood. Every breath Isabelle took scraped down her throat like sandpaper, but she didn’t dare cough. Not here. Not now. Her finger rested lightly along the side of her gun, the safety already off, the cool steel as much a part of her as the bones in her hand.
She moved in silence, her boots soundless on the concrete floor, her shadow stretching against the flickering fluorescent lights above. Each light buzzed faintly, some sputtering in and out as if unsure they wanted to illuminate this place at all. The walls sweated moisture, streaks of damp running downward into the thin gutter at the base.
Her pulse was a steady drumbeat in her ears
