Chapter 18 - The Voice Behind the Steel Door
Ethan ran toward the locked door.
Martin caught him before he reached it.
“Wait.”
“That’s my father!”
“It could be a recording.”
The voice came again.
“Ethan, don’t open the door.”
Everyone stopped.
Victor forced himself to stand.
“Samuel?”
A violent metallic vibration shook the door.
The control panel beside it displayed a rising pressure level.
Ethan studied the gauges.
The chamber beyond the door was not a room.
It was an underground engine-testing vault.
Someone had activated the ventilation turbines and sealed Samuel inside.
If the pressure continued rising, the vault would become impossible to open.
“Dad!” Ethan shouted.
Samuel answered through the speaker.
“Listen carefully. Vincent wants the door opened.”
“Why?”
“Because the vault contains the original Project 417 evidence.”
Martin examined the control panel.
“Can we shut down the turbines?”
“Not from here,” Samuel said. “Vincent locked the system remotely.”
Ethan opened the panel and found several rows of modern circuits connected to older mechanical controls.
Vincent had built software around Samuel’s original system again.
The pressure climbed higher.
Victor removed his broken watch and placed it on the control table.
“The watch is part of the override.”
Ethan looked at him.
“My father said to trust the person wearing it.”
“No. He said to trust the one with the broken watch because the damage reveals the internal key.”
Victor twisted the cracked glass.
The back of the watch opened, revealing a tiny metal disc engraved with a pattern of turbine blades.
Ethan inserted the disc into a circular slot beneath the control panel.
The vault system unlocked.
But instead of opening the door, a new message appeared.
SELECT ONE: RELEASE VAULT OR DISABLE AIRPORT NETWORK.
Martin read it twice.
“It’s forcing us to choose.”
If they opened the vault, Samuel would survive, but Vincent would keep control of the airport.
If they disabled the network, every compromised system would shut down, but Samuel could remain trapped until the pressure killed him.
Ethan examined the wiring.
“There has to be another way.”
Samuel’s voice remained calm.
“Disable the network.”
Ethan stared at the speaker.
“No.”
“Hundreds of aircraft are connected to that system.”
“I’m not leaving you inside.”
“You are not leaving me. You are stopping him.”
The pressure warning turned red.
Victor looked toward Ethan.
“Your father made this system. You may be the only person who can find a third option.”
Ethan removed the panel completely.
Behind it, he found a mechanical linkage with three positions.
Release.
Disable.
Transfer.
The third option had been hidden behind the digital controls.
“What does transfer mean?” Martin asked.
Ethan followed the linkage toward a thick underground cable.
“It transfers control somewhere else.”
“Where?”
Before he could answer, every monitor in the laboratory activated.
Vincent Lang appeared on all of them.
“You finally found the choice Samuel refused to make,” he said.
Then the airport map displayed a new red signal.
May you like
It was moving beneath them.
Something was approaching through the underground tunnels.
