“She gave it to me,” Silas corrected, “right before she… before she passed. She made me promise I’d take you far away. She said, ‘If they find out she’s alive, they’ll come back. Hide her where the money can’t find her.’” Silas looked at Arthur. “That’s why I didn’t go to the police, Mr. Blackwood. I thought you were dead, and I figured if I put the girl in the system, the men in the black car would find her. The children’s home was the only safe place, an anonymous place.”
“You stole my daughter from me,” Arthur said in an icy voice, though his eyes held a mixture of rage and gratitude. “But you saved her life.”
Suddenly, Detective Cole’s radio, as he had silently come up behind them, crackled to life.
“Boss!” one of the guards’ voices yelled. “We’ve got company. Three SUVs coming up the main road. They’ve killed their lights.”
Arthur reacted instantly. The pain of the past was replaced by the threat of the present.
“Is it the police?” he asked.
“Negative,” the radio crackled back. “They’re carrying long guns. They’re blocking the exit.”
“They found us,” Silas moaned, backing into the darkness of the tower. “I told you not to come. I told you they’d be back.”
“Cole, get my daughter out of here,” Arthur ordered, pulling a pistol from a holster at the small of his back. “Take her out the back.”
“I’m not leaving without you!” Anna cried, grabbing her father’s arm. “I just found you.”
“Exactly,” Arthur looked at her with a fierce intensity. “I’m not about to lose you again. Cole, move!”
“Get down!” Cole shouted, shoving Anna and Silas to the floor.
A second later, the glass of the tower window exploded into a thousand pieces. The crack of a sniper rifle echoed through the air, followed by the whistle of a bullet embedding itself in the metal wall inches from Arthur’s head.
“They’re firing!” Cole yelled, crawling toward the stairs. “We have to get to the basement.”
“Silas, lead us to the service elevator!” Arthur said.
“There’s an old grain lift that goes down to the tunnels. This way!” the old man said, trembling.
“Let’s go,” Arthur ordered, firing two shots toward the broken window to cover their retreat.
The group scrambled onto the rusty platform of the service lift. Bullets hammered against the metal warehouse like a deadly hailstorm. Below, they could hear the sound of doors being kicked in and voices shouting orders in a foreign language.
“Who are they?” Anna asked, clinging to Silas’s arm as the platform descended with a metallic screech.
Arthur reloaded his weapon with precise, cold movements.
“The same people who killed your mother,” he said, his eyes promising terrible violence. “And this time, I’m not going to be the victim.”
The service lift hit the concrete floor with a jolt that rattled Anna’s teeth. Dust billowed up in a choking cloud.
“Move!” Arthur yelled, grabbing Anna’s hand and pulling her into the blackness of a tunnel. “Cole, cover us!”
Detective Cole stayed behind, firing up the elevator shaft as the flashlights of their attackers began to descend the cables.
“Go!” Cole roared. “I’ll hold them here.”
“I’m not leaving you,” Arthur protested.
“You have to get your daughter out,” Cole replied, reloading his weapon. “Run!”
Arthur swore under his breath but knew the detective was right. He pushed Silas forward.
“Lead the way, old man! Where does this tunnel go?”
“To the river,” Silas gasped, limping as fast as he could. “There’s an old drainage outlet about half a mile down.”
The group ran through the narrow, damp corridor. The water was ankle-deep, cold and foul. Anna stumbled in the darkness, guided only by the light from her father’s cell phone. Behind them, the sound of Cole’s gunfire echoed like distant thunder, followed by a dull explosion that shook the walls.
“What was that?”
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