Chapter 14 - The Final Countdown
Julian saw the phone screen instantly: a remote demolition trigger.
Sterling spat blood, laughing wheezingly under Julian’s boot. “You think… you think I didn’t have a fail-safe? If I go down, the Vance legacy burns with me. C4… fifty charges planted along the industrial aqueduct above this bunker. In three minutes, this entire mountain collapses under two million tons of water.”
Julian kicked the phone from Sterling’s grasp, crushing it beneath his heel, but the timer was already running on an internal circuit board wired into the wall’s emergency junction box. The red digital numbers were ticking down: 02:45… 02:44…
“Marcus!” Julian yelled through his comm-link. “Evacuate the perimeter! Sterling rigged the main support pilings!”
He scooped Clara and Lily into his arms, grabbing Dr. Lin by the collar of her jacket and hauling her upright. “Sarah, can you walk?”
“I’m… I’m fine, go!” Sarah coughed, stumbling to her feet and leaning heavily against the wall.
Sterling lay on the floor, laughing maniacally as dust and small stones began to rain from the cracking ceiling. “You can’t outrun it, Julian! You’ll drown in the dark just like your father should have!”
Julian didn’t waste a breath on the dying politician. He bolted toward the emergency pneumatic lift at the rear of the bunker—the private escape shaft designed by his father for catastrophic failures. He pushed Sarah inside, placed the girls gently onto the floor of the cage, and slammed the steel mesh gate shut.
The timer reached thirty seconds.
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The ceiling cracked open with a deafening roar. A torrent of brown, pressurized industrial water burst through the fractures, sweeping down the main corridor like an inland tsunami. Sterling’s screams were instantly swallowed by the roaring wall of water.
Julian hit the emergency ascent button on the lift. The cables groaned, fighting against the descending weight, and the cage began to rise just as the water slammed into the base of the shaft.
