CHAPTER 6 — FIREWORKS OVER NEWPORT
Daniel watched the Whitmore estate from a fishing boat half a mile offshore.
Fireworks burst above the mansion.
Red light spread across the water.
Then blue.
Then white.
From a distance, the celebration looked beautiful.
Daniel knew the explosions served another purpose.
They covered gunshots.
They drowned out screams.
They gave Charles enough noise to destroy evidence without alarming the neighbors.
Rebecca sat beside him wearing a dark tactical jacket.
Evelyn piloted the boat toward the cliffs.
“There is a sea entrance beneath the estate,” Rebecca said. “The family used it during Prohibition.”
“You escaped through it?” Daniel asked.
“I tried.”
“What stopped you?”
“Vivian.”
Daniel studied his wife.
He still did not know how to look at her.
Part of him wanted to pull her close.
Another part wanted to demand an answer for every birthday, funeral, and lonely night she had missed.
But Emily was still inside.
Everything else would have to wait.
Evelyn slowed the engine.
“There are infrared sensors near the rocks.”
Daniel opened the black equipment case.
“Can you disable them?”
“For ninety seconds.”
“Make it sixty.”
Rebecca looked at him.
“You still hate waiting.”
“I buried my wife and watched my daughter dragged into a mansion. I’m done waiting.”
Evelyn activated a device.
“Sensors down.”
Daniel entered the water.
Rebecca followed.
They swam through the darkness toward a narrow opening beneath the cliff.
The tunnel led into a stone chamber filled with old wine barrels.
Daniel climbed onto the platform and checked the corridor.
Empty.
Rebecca touched his arm.
“Charles will have men near the lower rooms.”
“How many?”
“Enough.”
They moved silently through the passage.
Above them, fireworks shook the ceiling.
At the end of the corridor, Daniel heard voices.
Charles.
Vivian.
Chief Reed.
He moved closer.
Through a cracked door, Daniel saw Emily standing beside an elderly woman.
Anna.
Chief Reed held a gun against Emily’s back.
Dr. Vale operated a portable blood analysis machine.
Vivian placed two brass keys on the table.
Charles looked pleased.
“Rebecca’s daughter gave us the genetic confirmation,” he said. “Anna gives us the senior authorization.”
Anna spat at him.
“You will never have the third key.”
Charles wiped his face.
“That is where you are wrong.”
He looked toward Emily.
“The third key was hidden with Rebecca’s first child.”
Emily frowned.
“I’m her only child.”
Charles laughed.
“No.”
Daniel felt Rebecca’s hand tighten around his wrist.
The blood drained from her face.
Charles continued.
“Rebecca had a son two years before Emily was born.”
Emily stared at Anna.
“Is that true?”
Anna lowered her eyes.
“Your mother was forced to give him away.”
Daniel turned toward Rebecca.
“You had another child?”
Tears formed in her eyes.
“I tried to tell you.”
“When?”
“The night of the crash.”
Daniel struggled to breathe.
Charles walked toward a wall safe.
“The boy was raised under another name. He entered public service. Built a useful career.”
Chief Reed smiled.
Daniel looked at him.
The pieces came together.
Douglas Reed was the correct age.
The family resemblance had been hidden beneath weight, years, and a different name.
Chief Reed was Rebecca’s son.
Emily’s half-brother.
Charles removed a third brass key from Reed’s jacket.
“Thank you, brother.”
Emily’s face twisted in horror.
Reed looked at her without emotion.
“You should have stayed quiet.”
Daniel raised his rifle.
Rebecca stopped him.
“Not yet.”
“Reed has a weapon against Emily.”
“If you fire, Charles locks the chamber.”
Daniel noticed steel panels above the doors.
A sealed containment system.
Rebecca pointed toward a control box across the room.
“I need thirty seconds.”
“You have fifteen.”
They separated.
Rebecca moved through the side passage.
Daniel positioned himself behind the door.
Charles inserted the three keys into the wall safe.
Anna began to struggle.
“Do you know what is inside that vault?”
Charles turned the keys.
“A fortune.”
“No.”
Anna’s voice shook.
“Proof.”
The vault door opened.
Inside were rows of black files, hard drives, sealed photographs, and government documents.
Not money.
Evidence.
Decades of bribery.
Disappeared witnesses.
Blackmail operations.
Secret accounts.
Political assassinations disguised as accidents.
Charles stared at the files.
Vivian whispered, “Rebecca moved them.”
A warning alarm began flashing.
Rebecca had reached the control box.
Daniel kicked open the door.
He fired once.
The bullet struck Reed’s pistol and sent it spinning across the floor.
Emily dropped.
Charles grabbed her before Daniel could reach her.
He pressed a knife beneath her chin.
Rebecca entered from the opposite side.
Vivian froze when she saw her.
Her face collapsed.
“No…”
Rebecca raised her weapon.
“Hello, sister.”
For the first time in decades, Vivian Whitmore looked truly terrified.
Then the chamber doors began closing.
Charles pulled Emily toward the vault.
Daniel rushed forward.
A steel barrier dropped between them.
“Dad!”
Emily reached through the narrowing gap.
Daniel caught her hand.
For one second, their fingers locked together.
Then Charles dragged her away.
The steel door slammed shut.
A digital timer appeared above it.
OXYGEN PURGE: 04:59
Daniel turned toward Rebecca.
“What did you activate?”
Rebecca stared at the countdown.
“I didn’t.”
Evelyn’s voice came through Daniel’s earpiece.
“Get out of there. Someone has triggered the estate’s destruction protocol.”
Daniel looked through the small window in the steel door.
Charles was trapped inside the vault chamber with Emily, Vivian, Anna, and Chief Reed.
All of them had less than five minutes of air.
Then Charles lifted a black remote control.
He smiled through the glass.
The countdown stopped.
A second timer appeared.
This one showed a signal being transmitted beyond the estate.
Rebecca stared at the code.
“That’s not an oxygen purge.”
“What is it?”
“A dead-man upload.”
May you like
Charles pressed the remote.
Every secret inside the Whitmore vault began transmitting to an unknown location.
