Chapter 5 - THE ROOM WITHOUT WINDOWS
Vance stepped into the steel room.
Sarah waited until Beatrice crossed the threshold behind him.
Then she slammed the door and turned the key.
Arthur remained outside.
His face appeared for one second through the narrowing gap.
He did not try to stop her.
The lock engaged.
Vance spun.
“What did you do?”
Sarah backed toward the medical cabinet.
Beatrice pulled at the handle.
Locked.
She pounded once.
“Arthur!”
No answer.
Vance moved toward Sarah.
The room was too small to run.
She opened the cabinet and grabbed the first object within reach.
A sealed glass vial.
Vance laughed.
“You going to throw medicine at me?”
Sarah read the label.
Midazolam.
A sedative.
Beside it lay syringes, adhesive tape, gauze, and restraints.
Everything required to silence a person without blood.
Beatrice saw the label too.
Her expression tightened.
“This room was for emergencies.”
Sarah looked at the restraint rings.
“What kind of emergencies?”
“People who threatened the family.”
Vance snapped, “Stop talking.”
Beatrice ignored him.
Perhaps because she finally understood Arthur had chosen to leave them locked inside.
She looked at Sarah.
“David Mercer was brought here.”
Sarah kept the vial raised.
“Alive?”
“For several hours.”
“Who killed him?”
Beatrice’s gaze moved to Vance.
Vance crossed the room and slapped his mother.
The impact stunned everyone.
Beatrice touched her cheek.
“You stupid boy.”
“You said you’d handle this.”
“I have handled everything since you were seventeen.”
Vance grabbed her shoulders.
“You paid Rusk.”
“Because you called me from the marina crying.”
“I wasn’t crying.”
“You had blood on your shirt and Mercer’s phone in your pocket.”
Sarah listened.
The family had forgotten she was there.
Beatrice shoved Vance away.
“You struck him with the anchor winch. I paid Rusk to move the body. Arthur altered the company logs. All because you could not tolerate one man telling you no.”
Vance’s face hardened.
“He stole from us.”
“He discovered you stole from the foundation.”
Sarah said, “Where did the money go?”
Neither answered.
She stepped closer to the wall panel.
A small ventilation grille sat at shoulder height. If Marcus’s team reached the adjacent tunnel, sound might carry.
Sarah raised her voice.
“Forty-three million dollars. Where did it go?”
Beatrice understood.
She glanced toward the vent.
Then smiled.
“You think they can hear us?”
Vance turned.
Sarah threw the vial.
Not at him.
At the emergency light above the door.
Glass shattered. The room dropped into darkness.
Sarah moved toward the vent.
Vance caught her by the throat.
He drove her into the wall.
Her vision flashed white.
Beatrice said, “Don’t kill her until we know what they have.”
Vance tightened his grip.
“She pressed the device.”
“Then killing her confirms everything.”
Sarah forced one hand between his wrist and her throat.
With the other, she reached behind her.
Her fingers found a metal tray.
She swung it against his ear.
Vance staggered.
Sarah dropped to the floor coughing.
A voice came faintly through the vent.
“Sarah!”
Marcus.
She crawled toward the sound.
“Third room!”
Vance kicked her in the side.
Pain exploded through her ribs.
Marcus’s voice became sharper.
“Stand back from the door!”
Beatrice grabbed Sarah by the cardigan and dragged her away.
Vance seized a syringe.
He tore open the sedative vial that remained in the cabinet.
Sarah watched him draw liquid with shaking hands.
“You don’t know the dose,” Beatrice said.
“I know enough.”
“You’ll stop her breathing.”
“That’s the point.”
The steel door shook under an impact from outside.
Vance advanced.
Sarah looked toward Beatrice.
The older woman held her in place.
For years Beatrice had called Sarah daughter in public.
Now she tightened her grip and offered Sarah’s arm to her son.
The door shook again.
A hinge bent.
Vance raised the syringe.
Sarah stopped fighting Beatrice.
The sudden surrender threw the older woman off balance.
Sarah dropped her full weight, pulled Beatrice forward, and twisted.
The needle entered Beatrice’s shoulder.
Vance depressed the plunger before he realized.
Beatrice screamed.
Then stared at her son.
“You injected me.”
Vance released the syringe.
The steel door burst inward.
Marcus entered behind a ballistic shield.
Vance grabbed Sarah around the neck and pulled her in front of him.
Marcus raised his weapon.
“Let her go.”
Vance pressed a broken ampule against Sarah’s throat.
“Back up.”
Marcus did not move.
Beatrice sank to the floor as the sedative spread through her body.
Sarah met Marcus’s eyes.
He saw the blood.
The bruises.
The glass at her throat.
And something else.
Her right hand, hidden against Vance’s side, pointing toward the medical cabinet.
Marcus shifted his gaze.
Inside the open cabinet was a red fire-suppression switch.
He fired once.
The bullet struck the switch.
White chemical foam exploded from ceiling nozzles.
Vance flinched.
Sarah drove her heel down on his foot and tore free.
Agents crossed the room.
Vance hit the floor beneath three bodies.
Marcus reached Sarah.
“You’re safe.”
She looked past him.
Arthur stood in the tunnel.
Hands raised.
No weapon.
No documents.
Only the digital recorder.
May you like
He looked at Sarah and said, “Not yet.”
Then the service-building roof exploded.
