Chapter 13 - The Dam
Mercer Dam rose from the mountain like a concrete wall holding back the sky.
Rain hammered the reservoir.
Federal vehicles stopped half a mile from the main gate to avoid detection.
The plan required me to remain behind with Michael Ethan.
I refused.
“David requested the entire bloodline,” I told Mara. “He will not show himself without believing I brought the baby.”
“You are not carrying a premature infant into an armed facility.”
“We use the same weighted carrier.”
“He recognized the decoy at the pier.”
“Because he knew my walk. He knew it wasn’t me.”
Wyatt arrived from Black Hollow with dirt and blood across his clothes.
“You shouldn’t be here.”
“Neither should you.”
“My brother is inside.”
“So is mine.”
Our eyes held.
The connection between us had formed through tragedy, but it was no longer only that.
Wyatt had stood between David and me before he knew my name.
He had covered my child in a tunnel.
He had never once asked what he would receive in return.
“Michael Ethan stays inside the armored medical unit,” Mara said. “Anna carries an empty carrier equipped with audio and tracking. Wyatt remains with the entry team.”
We approached the gate at 3:40 a.m.
I walked alone beneath the rain.
The carrier felt heavy even without my baby inside.
A camera turned toward me.
David’s voice came from a speaker.
“Show me his face.”
“He’s covered.”
“Remove the blanket.”
I stopped.
“You release Claire first.”
“You are still negotiating as though you have power.”
“I have the only person you need.”
A long pause.
The gate opened.
I entered.
The service elevator carried me underground.
When the doors opened, David stood inside a control room lined with computer screens.
Claire and Michael were tied to chairs.
Michael looked barely alive.
His face was thinner than I remembered, and one eye was swollen shut.
But when he saw me, recognition moved across his face.
“Annie,” he whispered.
Only Michael had called me that.
My knees nearly collapsed.
“You’re alive.”
David held a gun against Claire’s neck.
“Put the carrier down.”
I obeyed.
He approached carefully.
“Open it.”
“Release her.”
He grabbed the blanket and pulled it away.
The carrier was empty.
His expression turned murderous.
“You stupid—”
Explosions shook the corridor.
Federal teams breached the lower entrances.
David fired toward me.
I dropped behind a control panel.
Claire threw herself sideways, pulling her chair into his legs.
The shot struck a monitor.
Michael kicked David’s ankle.
For a man weakened by captivity, he moved with astonishing force.
David fell.
I crawled toward the gun.
He reached it first.
Wyatt entered through the smoke.
“Ethan!”
Michael stared at him.
For one suspended second, the brothers saw each other for the first time in more than a decade.
David grabbed Claire and dragged her toward the main control console.
“Everyone stop!”
He held a detonator.
Red lights began flashing across the dam diagrams.
Mara appeared near the entrance.
“What did you activate?”
David smiled.
“Emergency spillway failure.”
The monitors showed pressure rising inside the reservoir gates.
“If the gates fail,” Michael said, “the towns below flood.”
“How do you know?” I asked.
“They made me design the override.”
David pressed the gun against Claire’s head.
“You will transfer the trust to me and unlock the offshore accounts.”
Michael shook his head.
“Never.”
“Then thousands of people die.”
Wyatt raised his weapon.
David moved behind Claire.
“You won’t risk the shot.”
He was right.
Michael looked at the screens.
“I need the biometric terminal.”
David dragged Claire closer to it.
“Do it.”
Michael placed his hand against the scanner.
The terminal activated.
David entered a command.
I watched the screen.
TRANSFER AUTHORIZATION PENDING.
A countdown appeared beneath the dam-pressure warning.
Five minutes.
Michael typed slowly.
David grew impatient.
“Faster.”
“My hands are damaged.”
Wyatt shifted slightly to the left.
David noticed.
“Move again and she dies.”
Claire’s face was white with fear, but her eyes moved toward me.
Then toward the emergency release lever beside my position.
Michael was not transferring the trust.
He was opening a maintenance channel.
A message appeared on the hidden corner of the screen.
MANUAL OVERRIDE REQUIRES TWO STATIONS.
He needed someone to pull the lever while he entered the code.
David watched the transfer screen, not the maintenance window.
Claire suddenly drove her head backward into his face.
His gun fired.
The bullet struck the ceiling.
Wyatt shot David in the shoulder.
I pulled the emergency lever.
Michael entered the final code.
The pressure alarms stopped.
The spillway gates stabilized.
David fell against the console.
Mara kicked the detonator away.
Federal agents surrounded him.
For the first time, David had nowhere to run.
He looked at me with hatred.
“You think you won?”
I walked closer.
“No. I think I survived.”
He laughed through the pain.
“You’re still carrying my name.”
“Not for long.”
As agents handcuffed him, an alarm began sounding from another console.
Michael stared at it.
“The server purge.”
“What does that mean?” Mara asked.
“All the evidence is being deleted.”
“Can you stop it?”
“Not from here.”
He pointed toward a lower chamber beneath the dam.
“The main server is below the turbine level.”
Water had already begun flooding the corridor after the emergency override.
Wyatt grabbed Michael.
“You are not going down there.”
“The evidence dies if I don’t.”
“The case already has witnesses.”
“Not enough to recover what they stole. Not enough to expose everyone involved.”
Michael looked at me.
“There are records naming every woman, every child, and every death.”
The water rose past our ankles.
“I’m going with him,” Wyatt said.
Mara handed them waterproof radios.
“You have four minutes before the chamber seals.”
The brothers disappeared down the stairwell.
David watched them go.
A strange smile crossed his face.
“There is no four-minute seal.”
I turned toward him.
“What did you do?”
“The lower chamber floods automatically during an emergency purge.”
Mara checked the schematics.
Her face went pale.
“How long?”
May you like
David leaned back against the wall.
“About ninety seconds.”
