Chapter 55 - THREE MINUTES OF OXYGEN AT SUB-ZERO
Julian did not hesitate. "Maria, take Eleanor to the auxiliary control deck and lock the blast hatch behind you. If anyone other than me approaches that door, empty both barrels."
"Julian, no!" Eleanor cried out, her voice breaking with the terrified maternal instinct that had kept her alive through decades of abuse. "You can't go down there! The water will freeze you to death in four minutes!"
"He saved your life on the highway, Mom," Julian said softly, kissing her wrinkled forehead. "I don't leave my men behind. Ever."
Julian snatched a compact tactical diving rebreather from the emergency wall kit, strapped the secondary harness around his chest, and vaulted over the railing into the stairwell leading down into the subterranean abyss.
The water was already waist-deep on the second sub-level, a terrifying, bone-crushing forty degrees Fahrenheit that instantly sapped the sensation from his thighs. The pressure was mounting as thousands of tons of frozen Adirondack lake water breached the outer blast walls, crushing office partitions and steel desks like matchwood.
Julian waded through the rushing torrent, his tactical flashlight cutting through the murky, debris-filled current. Up ahead, pressed against the three-inch-thick acrylic viewing window of the subterranean evidence vault, was Arthur Vance. The water inside Arthur's chamber was already at his chest, rising with merciless, rhythmic speed.
Arthur slammed his fist against the reinforced glass, pointing furiously toward an override lever situated behind an electrical distribution panel submerged under five feet of rushing water. The panel was sparking violently, blue arcs of electricity hissing across the surface of the flood.
Julian took a single, deep breath of pressurized oxygen through the rebreather mouthpiece, dropped his carbine, and plunged his entire body into the electrified, freezing water.
The shock hit his nervous system like a thousand white-hot needles. Every nerve ending screamed in agony as the stray current rippled through the flooded chamber, threatening to paralyze his diaphragm. Gritting his teeth until his molars cracked, Julian used a crowbar to pry the bent metal latch of the override panel open.
The steel handle was rusted and jammed under the immense water pressure. Julian braced both boots against the concrete wall and pulled with everything he had, the veins in his neck bulging against the suffocating cold.
With a deafening mechanical screech, the manual floodgate sheared open. A counter-current vortex tore through the corridor, venting the rising water into a deeper vertical drainage shaft. The hydraulic pressure on Arthur’s airlock door plummeted, and the heavy hatch swung open with a dull thud.
Arthur tumbled out into the draining corridor, coughing up mouthfuls of freezing water, gasping for air as Julian dragged him to the safety of the stairwell platform.
"You're a damn fool, Julian," Arthur wheezed through chattering teeth, his lips turning a terrifying shade of blue. "You should have let me drown. Helen is already at Westchester."
May you like
Julian’s eyes narrowed in the harsh beam of his tactical light. "What is at Westchester, Arthur? What did Charles hide there that your wife wants so badly she’s willing to kill Eleanor for it?"
Arthur looked up, his bloodshot eyes filled with a grief deeper than the flooded vault. "The second will, Julian. The real will that disinherits every single member of the Sovereign Trust and leaves every asset, every deed, and every off-shore account directly to Maria."
