CHAPTER 27 — VICTORIA’S DEBT
Air began rushing through vents in the ceiling.
The pressure inside the room changed.
Charles’s breathing monitor sounded rapidly.
Daniel pulled Noah into his arms.
Claire held Elias.
Adrian searched the sealed door.
“There is no manual release.”
Victoria stared at the archive console.
“There is one.”
Everyone looked at her.
“The purge can be canceled from the original command center.”
“Where?” Adrian asked.
“The terminal clock tower.”
Claire looked upward.
“That is five levels above us.”
Victoria nodded.
“And the elevator shaft collapsed.”
Gabriel pushed himself into a sitting position.
Daniel tried to stop him.
“Stay down.”
Gabriel pressed one hand against his wounded shoulder.
“There is a service ladder behind Charles’s chamber.”
Charles pointed weakly toward the rear wall.
Adrian found a narrow panel and forced it open.
A vertical ladder disappeared into darkness.
Victoria checked the oxygen display.
They had less than four minutes before the air became too thin for the children.
“I’ll go,” she said.
Claire blocked the opening.
“You expect us to trust you?”
“No.”
Victoria removed the silver clock symbol from beneath her sleeve.
She placed it in Claire’s hand.
“This contains Margaret’s private authorization codes.”
“Why give it to me now?”
“Because Evelyn gave me a choice before she died.”
Claire went still.
Victoria looked at the floor.
“After I damaged her brakes, she discovered what I had done. She could have exposed me immediately.”
“But she didn’t.”
“She offered me immunity if I testified against Margaret.”
“Why didn’t you accept?”
“I was afraid.”
Claire’s voice became cold.
“My mother died because you were afraid.”
“Yes.”
Victoria did not ask for forgiveness.
She moved toward the ladder.
“I cannot change that. But I can prevent her death from becoming useless.”
Adrian followed.
“I’m coming with you.”
“No. Stay with the children.”
“You expect to climb five levels alone?”
Victoria looked at him.
“I do not expect to come back.”
She entered the shaft.
A gunshot sounded above them.
Victoria fell from the ladder.
Adrian caught her before she struck the floor.
Blood ran from her side.
Margaret stood on a narrow maintenance platform above.
She had recovered a second pistol.
“You always were sentimental, Victoria.”
Margaret fired again.
Adrian pulled Victoria behind the steel panel.
The bullet struck the ladder.
Margaret began climbing upward.
Claire looked at the clock symbol in her hand.
“Is there another route?”
Charles struggled to speak.
“Train.”
Daniel turned toward him.
“The platform doors are sealed.”
Charles shook his head.
“Room Zero was built inside the original royal carriage.”
The floor beneath his medical chair vibrated.
Tracks appeared beneath the chamber.
Charles pressed a hidden switch.
The entire glass room began moving backward into a dark tunnel.
Daniel lifted Gabriel.
Adrian carried Victoria.
Claire gathered both boys.
They entered the moving chamber as the archive countdown reached two minutes.
The chamber accelerated through the tunnel.
Charles removed his breathing mask.
“Margaret is going to the clock tower.”
Claire looked at him.
“To stop the purge?”
“To change it.”
“What could be worse than destroying the archive?”
Charles stared at his two grandsons.
“She can redirect the purge into every identity record connected to Elias.”
Claire understood.
May you like
Margaret was not only trying to erase evidence.
She was going to erase Elias again.
