Chapter 16 - The Girl in Carriage Three
The scream echoed through the maintenance tunnel.
“Michael!”
Every person froze.
Even the armed guards outside instinctively turned toward the third carriage.
Michael stopped climbing down the ladder.
His face lost every trace of color.
“No…”
Daniel looked back.
“You know that voice?”
Michael answered so quietly that only Daniel heard him.
“I thought she died eleven years ago.”
Buddy barked once before rushing through the narrow tunnel. His paws splashed through shallow water as the old dog confidently followed a route that seemed almost familiar.
Marcus caught up beside Daniel.
“If the guards hear him—”
“They already have.”
Flashlights swept across the tunnel entrance.
Two armed men began descending another maintenance staircase only thirty yards away.
Daniel whispered, “Keep moving.”
The tunnel emerged beneath the center of the platform.
Above them, the wheels of the maintenance train creaked softly.
Through gaps between the steel beams, Daniel could see boots moving back and forth.
The guards had no idea people were directly beneath them.
Michael studied the old blueprints he had memorized years earlier.
“There should be an access hatch…”
Buddy scratched at a rusted metal panel.
Marcus smiled.
“He found it.”
Together they lifted the heavy cover just enough to peek inside.
The hatch opened directly beneath the third carriage.
Rows of refrigeration units lined both walls.
Medical equipment hummed quietly.
Transparent containers filled with frozen blood samples glowed under cold blue lights.
At the far end sat a reinforced glass chamber.
Inside was a teenage girl with long dark hair connected to several monitoring devices.
She couldn't have been older than sixteen.
Yet the medical file attached to the chamber listed her age as twenty-seven.
Daniel stared.
“That can't be right.”
Michael closed his eyes.
“It is.”
The girl's eyes suddenly opened.
She looked directly toward the hatch.
May you like
Then she smiled.
“You finally came.”
