Chapter 19 - No One Gets Left Underground
The pumps stopped. The water slowed, then settled below the walkway.
In the darkness, June whispered, "He did it."
Emergency lights came on. A final green indicator burned beside the levers: DISCHARGE SEALED.
I sagged against the wall. Somewhere above us, sirens answered the ones below. Real sirens. County trucks.
But the tanks had lost power too.
"How long can they breathe?" I asked.
"The backup oxygen holds twenty minutes," Jonah said. "If we open the patient wing, the rescuers can reach them."
We split up. June and Elena led the medical team toward the tanks. Jonah stayed to open the corridors and give the investigators his access records. I ran for the tower with the ledger, following Cora's voice through a handheld radio.
"We're on the roof," she said. "Victoria is trying to get to the helicopter pad."
I climbed into smoke and cold rain. Mira stood beside a burned door, holding the radio she'd used to guide us. Cora leaned against her, pale but standing.
Victoria waited at the far end of the roof with a pistol in one hand and a phone in the other.
"You think they'll believe you?" she shouted. "That judge will bury every charge."
"They have his contract," I said. "And your ledger. And live witnesses."
"Witnesses can change their stories."
"Not this one," Cora said.
She lifted Evelyn's radio. The county dispatcher was still on the channel. So were the arriving deputies, an ambulance crew, and the outside investigator Marcus had contacted before the blackout.
Victoria took one step backward. A floodlight caught her face. Three deputies emerged from the access stairs with weapons raised, ordering her to drop the gun.
She let it fall.
I thought the nightmare was over until June called from below.
"Clara, your father opened the last patient corridor. But the airlock sealed behind him, and he's trapped with the oxygen running out."
May you like
I looked at Cora. No explanation was needed.
We turned and ran back inside.
