Chapter 9 - The Sister Who Vanished Five Years Ago
“Blow the hinges!” Miller shouted.
“Negative!” the tactical breacher yelled back. “It’s a six-inch reinforced vault door with internal deadbolts. Linear shaped charges will over-pressurize the interior bunker and kill whoever is inside!”
“What’s the code?!” Miller yelled, turning to me.
I pulled up the decrypted files from the micro-drive on my tablet, scrolling frantically through thousands of lines of code.
“Hannah said the key was in the engraving!” I said, my mind racing back to the titanium plate I had removed from her arm.
PROPERTY OF THE AUSTIN ESTATE — ASSET #0942
“Try 0-9-4-2!” I yelled.
Miller punched the four digits into the keypad.
BEEP.
“INVALID CODE. 2 ATTEMPTS REMAINING BEFORE TOTAL SYSTEM LOCKDOWN.”
“Think, Sarah!” I told myself, taking a deep breath and forcing my clinical focus to take over.
Why would Daniel engrave that specific phrase?
“He killed my sister...” Hannah’s words echoed in my ears. Emily had died five years ago. November 14.
The Austin Estate asset code was 0942.
What if the code wasn't a number? What if it was the date of the crime that gave him the fortune?
“Try 1-1-1-4-0-9-4-2!” I shouted.
Miller hammered the eight digits into the glowing keypad.
A tense, agonizing second passed.
BEEP-CHIRP.
The heavy pneumatic locks disengaged with a deafening hiss of releasing air pressure. The massive steel door swung slowly outward.
A blast of stale, freezing air rushed out into the wine cellar.
Miller and I rushed inside with our flashlights raised.
The bunker was a sterile, tiled room with a single cot in the corner. Lying curled up beneath a thin wool blanket was a tiny six-year-old girl with long, dark hair, clutching a worn teddy bear.
Her skin was pale, her breathing shallow and rapid.
I dropped to my knees beside the cot, immediately checking her carotid pulse.
“Chloe?” I whispered gently, shining a soft penlight onto her face. “Chloe, can you hear me, sweetheart?”
The little girl’s eyes fluttered open. She looked at my white doctor’s coat, then up at the tactical officers standing in the doorway.
“Are you... an angel?” Chloe whispered, her voice tiny and fragile. “Did my mommy send you?”
May you like
Tears sprang to my eyes as I wrapped a warm thermal blanket around her small shoulders, lifting her into my arms.
“Your aunt Hannah sent us, baby,” I whispered, hugging her tightly against my chest. “You’re safe now. We’re going home.”
