CHAPTER 7 — The Countdown Beneath the House
3... 2... 1...
Nothing happened.
Everyone stood frozen.
Then Michael smiled.
"You really thought the explosion was under the house?"
Suddenly, a deafening blast echoed from outside.
BOOM!
The street erupted into flames.
One of the FBI armored vehicles flipped into the air.
Windows shattered across the neighborhood.
Smoke swallowed everything.
Panic exploded.
Michael shoved a nearby officer to the floor and sprinted toward the back door.
"Stop him!" someone screamed.
Victor tried to chase him, but another explosion rocked the house.
The ceiling collapsed.
Wooden beams crashed between them.
Clara shielded Lily with her own body.
Ethan was thrown across the room.
For a terrifying moment, he couldn't hear anything except a loud ringing in his ears.
When the smoke cleared...
Michael was gone.
So was Lily.
"No!" Clara screamed.
She stumbled toward the broken doorway.
"The baby!"
Outside, black SUVs burned in the middle of the street.
FBI agents searched every direction.
But Michael had vanished into the chaos.
Hours later...
The surviving agents discovered a hidden underground tunnel beneath the house.
It stretched nearly half a mile beneath the city.
Inside they found passports...
Stacks of cash...
Weapons...
And dozens of surveillance photos.
Every picture showed Ethan.
At school.
At birthday parties.
At the playground.
Someone had been watching him...
Every single day of his life.
Then one agent opened the final steel locker.
Inside was a laptop.
The screen automatically lit up.
A prerecorded video began to play.
Michael appeared on the screen.
Smiling.
"If you're watching this..."
"It means you finally found my tunnel."
He laughed softly.
"But you're chasing the wrong man."
He stepped aside.
A shadow emerged behind him.
An elderly woman with elegant silver hair.
Victor collapsed into his chair.
"No..."
"It can't be..."
The woman smiled into the camera.
"Hello, Victor."
"Did you really think your daughter died because of Michael?"
She slowly removed her sunglasses.
"I planned everything."
Victor whispered one name...
"Elizabeth..."
His own wife.
May you like
Ethan's grandmother.
The woman everyone believed had died fifteen years earlier.
