Chapter 6 - The Bargain
Rachel moved in front of her son.
“You’ll have to shoot me first.”
Elaine sighed.
“Rachel, don’t make this dramatic.”
“You’re pointing a gun at an eleven-year-old.”
“I’m pointing it at the thing he’s holding.”
Leo tucked the recorder behind his back.
Elaine’s smile disappeared.
“Give it to me.”
Victor stepped forward.
“Put the gun down.”
Elaine laughed.
“Now you want to be brave?”
“Those are my family.”
“So am I.”
“No. I don’t know what you are anymore.”
Something shifted behind Elaine’s eyes.
Pain.
Then anger.
“You knew exactly what I was when you married me.”
“I knew you were ambitious.”
“You knew I was tired of being treated like a guest in this family.”
Rachel shook her head.
“So you stole fourteen million dollars?”
Elaine glanced at her.
“You think Henry built his fortune by being kind? He crushed people. Bought companies, shut plants, fired thousands.”
“And that made the money yours?”
“It made him a hypocrite.”
Leo spoke quietly.
“Where’s Grandpa?”
Elaine looked at him.
The room changed.
Victor heard it too.
“Elaine.”
She didn’t answer.
“Where is my father?”
“Alive.”
Rachel nearly collapsed against the table.
“Where?”
Elaine smiled.
“That depends on whether Leo gives me the recorder.”
Leo looked around.
Three men.
One gun.
One exit.
Then he remembered something Grandpa taught him.
Machines always tell you when something is wrong.
The room had lights.
A ventilation fan.
A small security panel near the door.
Which meant electricity.
And Grandpa never built anything without a backup.
Leo slowly lifted the recorder.
“You want it?”
“Yes.”
“Come get it.”
“Leo,” Rachel warned.
He stepped toward Elaine.
She lowered the gun slightly.
One of the men laughed.
“Smart kid.”
Leo reached the table.
Then deliberately dropped the recorder.
Elaine cursed and looked down.
Leo slammed his elbow onto the red emergency switch beneath the shelf.
The room went black.
A siren screamed.
Rachel tackled Leo to the floor.
Victor lunged toward Elaine.
A gunshot exploded.
Someone shouted.
Then a second shot.
Leo crawled beneath the table.
Hands grabbed him.
He kicked.
“Mom!”
“I’ve got you!”
Rachel pulled him toward the tunnel.
Red emergency lights flashed on.
Victor had Elaine pinned against the wall.
One of the men lay unconscious.
The other two were running.
Melissa screamed from the doorway.
“Go!”
They raced down the tunnel.
Behind them, Elaine shouted.
“You don’t understand what Henry did!”
Victor yelled, “Run!”
They reached another staircase.
Leo burst through a wooden hatch into freezing night air.
The old pump house stood twenty yards away.
A red light blinked inside.
Leo stopped.
The map.
The red X.
“Mom.”
Rachel saw it.
They ran toward the building.
Then Leo heard a sound from inside.
Three knocks.
Pause.
May you like
Three knocks.
Grandpa’s signal.
