Chapter 14 - FROM THE ASHES
Ten minutes later, the security team unlocked the heavy vault door, wearing oxygen masks, carrying heavy body bags.
As they stepped into the thick white fog, a shadow dropped down from the ceiling duct directly onto the first guard!
Daniel slammed the man's head into the concrete floor, knocking him unconscious instantly. Before the second guard could raise his weapon, Emily—holding a heavy iron fire extinguisher—swung it with all her strength, striking the man across the shoulder and sending him crashing into the server racks.
Daniel snatched the guard's keycard and security radio, grabbed Emily's hand, and pulled her out into the main corridor.
"They think we're dead," Emily panted, her throat raw from the gas fumes.
"Good," Daniel said, his eyes filled with a terrifying, absolute resolve. "That gives us the element of surprise. We go straight to Washington."
They escaped the building through the maintenance shaft, emerging into a quiet back alley two blocks away.
By sunrise, they were aboard a private train heading north toward the nation's capital.
Emily sat by the train window, staring at the blurred green landscape flying past. The small black external hard drive rested in her lap alongside her father's old leather binder.
Daniel sat beside her, wrapping a warm hand over hers.
"Your mother tried to kill you, Daniel," Emily said quietly, looking at him with deep sympathy. "How do you feel?"
Daniel looked out the window, his expression carved from stone. "I lost my mother years ago, Emily. I just didn't realize it until last night. The woman in that cellar wasn't my mother—she was a ghost consumed by greed. I have no family left except the truth."
Emily squeezed his hand tightly. "You're not alone, Daniel. We finish this together."
At 10:00 AM, the train pulled into Union Station, Washington D.C.
Waiting for them on the platform was a tall man in a dark grey suit, wearing aviator sunglasses, surrounded by four armed federal officers.
May you like
Special Agent Marcus Vance.
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