Chapter 15
Chapter 15: The Vault of Truth
Daniel pushed Emily behind a stack of old wooden crates. "Stay quiet."
He picked up a heavy iron pipe from the floor and stood by the door, ready to swing.
The heavy door burst open.
Daniel swung, but a strong hand caught the pipe in mid-air.
"Stand down, Daniel! It's me!"
It was Detective Lane. He was covered in soot, coughing heavily, his suit torn.
Daniel dropped the pipe. "Lane! Where is Victoria?"
Lane grimaced. "She had a secondary panic button in the nursery. A wall panel opened. She slipped through into the servant passages before I could stop her. I had to shoot the lock off the main stairwell to get down here. She's moving through the walls."
Emily stepped out from behind the crates, holding Hope. "Why would she come down here? The fire is upstairs."
Daniel looked at the far end of the basement. A massive, reinforced steel vault door stood embedded in the stone wall.
"Because the fire upstairs is a distraction," Daniel realized, his blood running cold. "The real evidence isn't in the archives. It's in Dad's personal vault. She didn't trigger the fire to burn it. She triggered it to trap us while she cleans this out."
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"Can she open it?" Lane asked.
"She has his fingerprints and his retina scans replicated," Daniel said bitterly. "She's been planning this for years."
