Chapter 12 - Into the Catacombs
Leaving Arthur to guard the exit with the vintage bus, Thomas lifted the sleeping child into his arms, wrapping her in his heavy transit coat against the biting river chill. He climbed down into the concrete ditch, ducking into the dark maw of the culvert.
The air inside the tunnel was freezing and smelled of iron and stagnant water. Thomas walked slowly, stepping carefully along the raised service ledge to keep Lily dry. His flashlight was taped with electrical tape, leaving only a pinhole of red light to illuminate the mossy concrete walls.
""Mister Bus Man?"" Lily whispered, waking up in the dark. Her small fingers reached up, touching his rough cheek. ""Is it dark outside?""
""Just a tunnel, Lily. We're going to see your daddy now. But we have to be as quiet as little mice, okay? Not a peep.""
Lily nodded solemnly, pressing her face against his chest, tucking her chin into his lapel.
They navigated the rising incline for ten minutes until the concrete gave way to antique red brick and cast-iron support pillars. Above them, the distant hum of voices and footsteps echoed down through an iron floor grate.
Thomas climbed the rusted steel rungs of an access ladder, his muscles burning under the strain of carrying the child with one arm. He pushed up against the trapdoor with his shoulder. The rusted iron shifted with a muted scrape, allowing him to pull himself up onto the floor of the abandoned furnace room.
The space was colossal. Above them rose cathedral ceilings made entirely of arched glass panes, many broken, allowing the cold rain to mist downward onto rows of dead brick kilns.
In the center of the vast expanse, beneath the glow of portable halogen work lamps, stood the captors. Sarah Vance was tied to a support pillar, her head slumped forward. Standing ten feet away, hands raised in the air, was a tall, gaunt man in a worn canvas coat—Marcus Vance.
May you like
""I have the ledger,"" Marcus was saying, his voice cracking with exhaustion. ""Take the documents and let her go. She doesn't know anything else.""
The leader of the group smiled, stepping forward with an open briefcase. ""We will, Marcus. As soon as your little girl arrives to make sure you didn't leave any copies behind.""
