Chapter 10 - THE MAN AT REED’S SIDE
Captain Mercer ordered the tactical agents to place their weapons on the floor.
Gas continued to fill the chamber.
Celeste’s eyes burned.
Admiral Reed stared at the officer who had served beside him for nine years.
“How long?” Reed asked.
“Longer than you want to know.”
Mercer wore a compact breathing filter beneath his collar.
He had prepared for the trap.
“You gave Julian the Valor’s route,” Celeste said.
“I gave him an opportunity.”
“Twelve people died.”
“Acceptable losses.”
Reed lunged toward him.
Mercer fired into the ceiling.
Concrete fragments rained down.
“Do that again and I put the next round through her.”
He pointed the weapon at Celeste.
Mercer opened a side hatch and removed the altered guidance modules.
“You will remain here until the tide rises.”
“The chamber will flood in twenty minutes.”
Celeste watched the water beginning to enter through drains in the floor.
“Why leave the recorder?” she asked.
“To make you believe you had found the truth.”
Mercer smiled.
“People stop searching when they think the mystery has been solved.”
“You didn’t expect Amelia’s warning.”
His smile disappeared.
Celeste continued.
“You didn’t know she named you.”
“She didn’t name me.”
“She didn’t have to.”
Celeste pointed toward his left shoulder.
“You always stand at Reed’s right side because nerve damage prevents you from drawing quickly across your body.”
Mercer’s eyes narrowed.
“She described a position, not a person.”
“She knew exactly who would hear it.”
The chamber water reached Celeste’s boots.
Mercer backed into the tunnel.
“Julian sends his regards.”
He sealed the hatch behind him.
Reed and the agents searched the room for another exit.
The gas weakened their movements.
Celeste forced herself to focus.
Her mother had built the room.
Her mother would never have designed a chamber with only one exit.
She replayed Amelia’s words in her mind.
The tide reveals the door.
Celeste knelt in the rising water.
Beneath the lowest shelf, she found a circular handle.
The agents pulled the shelf away.
A second door appeared in the floor.
They opened it seconds before the chamber completely flooded.
One by one, they entered a drainage pipe leading toward the outer harbor.
Celeste was the last to leave.
May you like
Before closing the hatch, she saw something floating beside the recorder.
It was Vivian’s red coat.
