Chapter 5 - Blood on the BlueprintThey dove through the hidden wall panel behind the grandfather clock just as a flashbang grenade detonated inside the dining hall, filling the space with blinding white light and a deafening shockwave.
The secret corridor was pitch black, smelling of damp stone and old dust. Adrien led the way, his tactical instincts taking over. They scrambled down a narrow spiral staircase that descended deep into the bedrock beneath the Long Island Sound estate—part of a Cold War-era fallout shelter built by the property's original eccentric shipping-magnate owner.
"How did you even know about this tunnel?" Adrien demanded, panting as they hit the concrete floor at the bottom of the stairs. He flicked on the tactical flashlight attached to his pistol, illuminating a long, damp concrete corridor.
"I told you, I do my research," Maya said, pressing her back against the concrete wall and listening intently for pursuit. "Your father mapped this tunnel out three weeks before he died. He knew they were tracking him. He gave a copy of the blueprints to a trusted friend before the 'heart attack' took him."
Adrien stopped dead in his tracks. The flashlight beam trembled slightly against the damp wall. "A friend? Who?"
"My mother," Maya said quietly.
Adrien stared at her in the dim light of the beam. The pieces of the puzzle suddenly slammed together with terrifying clarity—the way she moved, the way she watched him, the quiet grief that mirrored his own.
"You're Arthur Pendelton’s granddaughter," Adrien breathed. Arthur Pendelton had been his father’s chief engineer—the man who mysteriously vanished the night his father died.
"My name isn't Maya," she said, her dark eyes flashing with unshed tears. "It’s Elena Pendelton. And for twenty-two years, I’ve been waiting for the Golden Architect to wake up and realize his entire kingdom is built on a mass grave."
Before Adrien could absorb the revelation, the heavy iron reinforcement door at the top of the spiral staircase groaned under the impact of heavy explosives.
May you like
Boom.
Dust rained down from the ceiling. They had less than sixty seconds before the strike team blew the lower hatch.
