Chapter 36 - Breaking the Cage
The air was so thin my lungs burned with every breath. My vision spotted with dark edges as I scrambled behind the hot electrical junction box, my hands slick with cold sweat.
Ethan and Marcus threw their full combined weight onto the heavy iron floor plate. The mechanical gears deep within the stone walls groaned under the sudden immense pressure.
"Now, Clara! Pull it!" Ethan bellowed, his face pale, his muscles straining against the weight.
I reached past the buzzing high-voltage wires, my fingers wrapping around the cold iron handle of the emergency release lever. With every ounce of maternal rage, strength, and love remaining in my body, I pulled downward with a desperate shriek.
SPARK!
Blue electrical sparks showered over my arms, but the heavy tungsten vault doors unlatched with a loud, pneumatic hiss, swinging open six inches!
Fresh, cool air rushed into the room.
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Ethan surged forward, grabbing the edge of the steel door, pulling it open wide enough for us to scramble through into the corridor just as the vault's secondary backup alarms began to blare.
"Marcus! Get the jet ready!" Ethan barked, snatching Dr. Thorne’s journal and the sealed glass drive from the workbench. "We have twenty-four hours to reach the courthouse in Chicago!"
