Chapter 2 - The Wall That Knocked Back
Hannah ordered the plate opened.
Kane ordered everyone to stand down.
For several seconds, nobody moved.
Then a young mechanic named Evan Brooks picked up a cutting bar.
“If there’s nothing there,” Hannah said, “I embarrass myself. If there is, Colonel Kane explains why he stopped me.”
That broke the fear.
Two workers joined Evan.
Kane watched but did not interfere.
The plate came loose.
Behind it was a narrow dark passage.
Blankets.
Water containers.
Medical wrappers.
A control panel with its labels removed.
And a smell Hannah recognized immediately.
People had been living there.
“Flashlight.”
She crawled inside.
Ten feet down, the passage opened into a hidden compartment.
Five people sat against the wall.
Three men.
Two women.
All exhausted.
One woman lifted her head.
“Please,” she whispered. “Don’t close it again.”
Hannah’s anger turned cold.
Behind her, someone ran.
She backed out.
Chief Engineer Paul Marsh was sprinting across the dock with a black briefcase.
“Stop him!”
No one reacted quickly enough.
Marsh jumped into a utility cart.
Hannah ran after him.
The cart clipped a pallet and spun into a barrier.
Marsh jumped clear.
The briefcase slid across the concrete.
They both lunged for it.
“You don’t understand what you’re touching,” Marsh hissed.
“Then explain it.”
Harbor officers arrived and pinned him down.
Hannah picked up the locked case.
Kane reached her.
“Give me that.”
“No.”
“There are names in there.”
“Good.”
“Names that can get people killed.”
“Who?”
Kane looked toward the rescued people.
“The last officer who pushed this far died.”
Her pulse slowed.
“Who?”
He met her eyes.
“Your father.”
Twelve years earlier, Commander Michael Mercer had died in a highway crash.
Mechanical failure.
That was the official story.
Marsh laughed from the ground.
“You’re twelve years late, Mercer.”
May you like
Hannah turned.
“And the man who killed your father already knows you opened Deck Four.”
