Chapter 26 - THE CONSERVATORY VAULT
We stood motionless in the shadows for two full minutes, but the mansion returned to an eerie, absolute silence.
"It’s just the timber settling in the cold air," I said softly, though my pulse raced with heightened alertness.
We continued down the rear service corridor, entering a vast, glass-domed conservatory filled with withered ferns and rusted iron planters.
At the center of the conservatory floor lay a massive mosaic pattern depicting a stylized nautical compass made of dark granite.
I knelt beside the northern point of the compass, using a handheld scanner to measure density variations beneath the floor tiles.
The scanner registered a massive subterranean steel chamber located exactly eight feet beneath the center stone.
Marcus used a pry bar to lift the heavy granite compass rose, revealing a circular brass access hatch fitted with an electronic keypad.
The keypad was powered by a low-voltage auxiliary battery line that was still operational after all these years.
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I pulled out the silver keycard photograph from my phone, entering the eight-digit serial code visible on the tarnished metal surface.
A heavy pneumatic hiss echoed through the glass dome as the brass hatch unlocked, releasing a blast of icy, preservation-grade cold air.
