Chapter 10 - FIVE MINUTES BENEATH THE MOUNTAIN
The timer began at five minutes.
No one wasted time arguing.
Mara ran to the archive console.
Agent Reyes checked the fallen men.
Two were dead.
Three were injured.
Julian and my mother had escaped through separate passages.
Celeste sat against the staircase, pulling at the damaged restraint around her wrists.
My father crossed the chamber and released her with a knife.
She stared at him.
“I expected you to leave me.”
“You are evidence.”
The answer was cold.
It was also protection.
“Can you stop the destruction sequence?” I asked Mara.
“No.”
“What activates?”
“Thermite charges around the data cores.”
“Structural charges beneath the dome.”
“How long to reach the surface?”
“Four minutes if the main stairs remain clear.”
A blast shook the upper level.
Dust fell from the ceiling.
“The stairs are no longer clear,” Reyes said.
The main access route had collapsed.
We returned to the drainage tunnel.
A steel barrier had sealed across it.
My mother had closed every exit behind her.
“She planned this,” I said.
Elias studied the mechanical room.
“She planned to trap Julian.”
“She trapped us too.”
“She may not know we entered through the lower tunnel.”
“She saw us.”
My father had no answer.
Mara searched the original observatory blueprints.
“There is another shaft.”
“Where?”
“Behind the primary telescope foundation.”
We climbed toward the upper chamber.
The observatory dome had partially opened.
Snow blew through the gap.
The giant telescope stood tilted toward the night sky.
Near its base, Julian’s men had placed equipment cases and communications gear.
One monitor displayed a live map.
Two signals were moving away from the observatory.
One toward the eastern ridge.
One toward the private airstrip.
“Which is Eleanor?” Reyes asked.
My father studied the movement.
“The eastern ridge.”
“How do you know?”
“She would avoid the aircraft.”
“Then Julian has the ledger?”
“No.”
My father pointed to the eastern signal.
“That is the ledger.”
My mother had placed a tracker on it.
Or Julian had.
Either way, she was carrying the data toward the ridge.
02:58.
Mara found the maintenance shaft beneath the telescope platform.
The hatch required a manual release.
The wheel would not move.
Nathan’s voice returned to me.
Eleanor used constellations as passwords.
The telescope’s control panel displayed a star map.
Cassiopeia glowed at the center.
I entered the sequence Celeste had given us.
Two.
Five.
One.
Four.
Three.
The hatch unlocked.
A narrow ladder descended through the mountain.
“Go,” Reyes ordered.
Celeste entered first.
Mara followed.
Then the injured tactical officers.
I moved toward the ladder.
My father remained beside the map.
“Elias.”
“Julian’s signal is turning back.”
He was right.
The aircraft signal had changed direction.
Julian was returning to the observatory.
“Why?”
“To make sure the ledger is destroyed.”
“Or to make sure we are.”
01:54.
A shot struck the telescope controls.
Julian entered through the shattered main doorway.
Blood covered one sleeve of his coat.
He held a rifle in his left hand.
“Leaving already?” he asked.
Reyes returned fire.
Julian disappeared behind the upper railing.
My father pushed me toward the hatch.
“Climb.”
“I am not leaving you.”
“This is not the time to prove independence.”
“This is not independence.”
I drew a pistol from one of the fallen attackers.
“It is participation.”
We moved behind opposite supports.
Julian fired toward my father.
I fired toward the muzzle flash.
The shot forced him back.
Reyes reached the hatch.
“Thirty seconds!”
00:47.
My father moved toward me.
Julian appeared above him.
The rifle aimed downward.
I fired.
The bullet struck Julian’s shoulder.
He fell behind the railing.
Elias grabbed my hand.
We reached the hatch.
00:28.
Reyes descended first.
I followed.
My father entered above me and pulled the hatch closed.
The shaft shook.
Metal screamed around us.
We climbed down as the countdown reached zero.
The explosion began above.
Heat rushed through the shaft.
The ladder tore away beneath my father’s feet.
He fell.
I caught his wrist with both hands.
Pain ripped across my back.
For one terrible second, his full weight dragged me downward.
Reyes climbed back toward us.
Together, we pulled Elias onto a narrow maintenance ledge.
The mountain continued shaking.
Then silence arrived.
Snow and dust poured through the shaft.
We remained pressed against the walls, breathing in darkness.
“Is everyone alive?” Reyes called.
Voices answered below.
Celeste.
Mara.
Two tactical officers.
My father.
Me.
We continued descending.
The shaft opened near the frozen lake, half a mile from the observatory.
Behind us, the dome collapsed into the mountain.
Fire glowed beneath the snow.
The ledger signal continued moving east.
My mother was alive.
She had escaped before triggering the destruction.
A second signal appeared on Mara’s map.
Julian.
He had also survived.
Both signals were converging near an abandoned ranger station.
We moved through the forest.
My father struggled to keep pace.
His ankle had been injured in the fall.
At the ranger station, we found blood on the steps.
The door stood open.
Inside, my mother sat against the wall.
A gunshot wound marked her side.
The black Meridian ledger case was handcuffed to her wrist.
I dropped beside her.
“Mother.”
Her eyes opened.
“Victoria.”
“Where is Julian?”
“Gone.”
She looked toward Elias.
“He took the access key.”
“What key?”
“The ledger is useless without it.”
A vehicle engine started outside.
Reyes ran to the window.
Julian’s truck disappeared through the trees.
My mother gripped my hand.
“He is going to Chicago.”
“Why?”
“To activate Meridian’s final protocol.”
“What does it do?”
Her face tightened with pain.
“It does not expose the network.”
“It transfers control.”
“To whom?”
May you like
She looked directly at me.
“To Nathan Ashford.”
