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387 Words
Chapter ten
The grate screeched again. Closer. Metal on metal.
Lena shoved Claire toward the tunnel. “Choose now. Brass goes to the lab. Steel goes to the bank. You don’t have time for both.”
Damien’s grip tightened on Claire’s hand. He didn’t let go. “If she walks in there alone, she doesn’t walk out.”
“She won’t walk out either if the Board gets that folder,” Lena shot back. “5:26. Door seals at 5:31. That’s four minutes.”
Claire’s thumb ran over the brass key. Hot. Then the steel one. Cold. E.B.’s note in the folder had two words underlined: witness and proof.
Above, a boot hit the dock. Light sliced through a c***k in the hatch. “Thermal’s reading three bodies. Breach the piling.”
Claire made the choice E.B. trained her for. Not the safe one. The one that forced the other side to react.
She pressed the steel bank key into Damien’s palm and closed his fingers over it. “7:00am. Get the proof. If I’m not out by 6:30, release it.”
Damien’s eyes flashed. “Rule two isn’t ‘trust no one with your last name.’ It’s ‘I don’t leave you.’”
“Then don’t,” she whispered. “Be at the bank. Be my witness from there.”
She shoved the brass key into her pocket and ran. Not toward the lab. Toward the side tunnel Lena hadn’t pointed to. The one E.B. had scribbled as floodgate in the margin of her childhood map.
Lena cursed. “That leads to the river, not the lab”
“Exactly,” Claire called back, voice echoing. She hit the rusted wheel and cranked. Water roared behind a corroded door.
The hatch above blew open. Flashlights pinned Damien and Lena. “Board Security! Hands up!”
Damien didn’t raise his hands. He raised the steel key. And smiled. “You want the bank? It’s not at 7:00am anymore. I moved it.”
The floodgate wheel spun free in Claire’s hands. Cold water hit her knees, then her waist. Somewhere ahead, the lab door clicked. 5:29.
Phone buzzed one last time. Unknown number.
Text: You picked the third option. Clever girl. See you at 5:30am. Alone.
The tunnel filled. And the Board’s shouts were swallowed by rushing water.
- Writer
