Chapter 82: The Freeze

I gripped the crowbar, feeling the cold steel bite into my palm. The weight of it was grounding, a promise of violence against a world that had offered me none.

"The trapdoor," Lucia said, reading from Vance's text. "It's in the main room. Under the bear skin rug."

"Of course it is," Ben muttered. "Melodramatic to the end."

We left the workshop in the SUV, the upload bar on Ben's monitor a slow-moving green worm. 2%. It would take hours. We didn't have hours.

The drive back to the Adirondacks felt different this time. Before, we were hunting. Now, we were executing. The fear was gone, burned away by the cold clarity of purpose.

We reached the turnoff just as the first light of dawn touched the peaks. The smoke from the cabin fire had settled into a low, gray haze that clung to the trees like a shroud.

We parked in the same spot, covered the car again. We moved through the woods, silent, efficient.

The cabin was a ruin. The roof had collapsed, the walls were blackened skeletons. But the stone chimney still stood, a tombstone marking the site.

And in the center of the debris, where the main room had been, was a hole.

The floor had burned away, revealing the stone foundation. And in the center of the foundation, a heavy iron grate had been pulled aside.

"Vance opened it," I said.

"Where is he?" Mark asked, scanning the tree line.

"Down there," I said. "Waiting."

We climbed down into the ruins, the ash crunching under our boots. The heat was still radiating from the stones, a dull, throbbing warmth.

I looked down the hole. It was dark, deep. A metal ladder disappeared into the gloom.

"Same as the coal chute," Ben said. "Another entrance to the mine."

"But this one goes deeper," I said. "To the labs."

I climbed down first. The ladder was slick with condensation. The air grew colder as I descended, the smell of smoke replaced by the metallic tang of the underground.

I reached the bottom. I clicked on my flashlight.

I was in a corridor. But not a rough-hewn mine shaft. This was finished. Concrete floors. Fluorescent lights, flickering on emergency power.

"It's a bunker," Lucia whispered, dropping down beside me.

We moved forward. The corridor was lined with doors. Steel doors. Secure doors.

*Genetics.*
*Cryogenics.*
*Incubation.*

We passed *Incubation*. The door was open.

I shone my light inside.

Rows of incubators. Dozens of them. All empty. All broken.

"She destroyed them," I said. "Before she left."

"Or she took them," Ben said.

We reached the end of the hall. A heavy blast door stood ajar.

Inside was a command center. Banks of monitors. Servers. A desk.

And sitting at the desk was Vance.

He was alive.

He was slumped in the chair, bleeding from a head wound, but he was breathing.

"Vance!" I ran to him.

He opened his eyes. They were unfocused, groggy.

"Sarah?" he rasped.

"We're here," I said. "We got your message."

"You shouldn't have come," he said. "It's a trap."

"We know," I said. "Where is she?"

Vance pointed to a door on the far side of the room.

"The atrium," he said. "The main shaft."

"Is she alone?" Ben asked.

"No," Vance said. "She has... help."

"The subjects?" I asked.

Vance shook his head.

"Worse."

He coughed, spitting blood.

"She has the Board."

I froze.

"The Board?"

"The Trust," Vance said. "The investors. The people who paid for all of this."

He looked at me.

"They're here to collect their assets, Sarah. They're here for the children."

I looked at the door.

"How many?" I asked.

"Six," Vance said. "Armed. Private military."

"And Martha?"

"She's selling them," Vance said. "Right now. An auction."

I looked at Ben. At Lucia.

"We need a distraction," I said.

"We need a miracle," Lucia said.

"No," I said. "We need a cave-in."

I looked at the supports. The heavy steel beams holding up the roof of the bunker.

"Ben," I said. "Can you bring it down?"

Ben looked at the beams. He looked at the structure.

"If I blow the main supports," he said. "The whole mountain comes down."

"Do it," I said.

"We'll be buried," Lucia said.

"Not if we're fast," I said. "The drainage tunnel. It connects to this level, too."

I looked at the map on the wall.

*Emergency Exit: Sector 4.*

"That's on the other side of the atrium," I said. "We have to go through them."

Ben nodded. He opened his bag. He pulled out the flares Edith had left in the cabin. And a can of kerosene he had found in the woodshed.

"It's not C4," he said. "But it will do."

"Set it," I said.

I turned to Vance.

"Can you walk?"

"I can crawl," he said.

"Good enough."

I looked at the door to the atrium. I could hear voices. Low. Professional.

I gripped the crowbar.

"Let's crash the party."