Chapter 11 – Ten Minutes
09:49
The countdown glowed on every monitor.
Its red numbers reflected across the faces of everyone in the surveillance room.
No one spoke.
Then Detective Sarah Collins snapped into action.
"Split up? No."
She shook her head immediately.
"That's exactly what he wants."
Daniel stared at the screens.
"What if there are children in different locations?"
"We don't even know if this countdown is real," Collins replied. "We don't gamble with lives based on a kidnapper's instructions."
The deputy working the forensic laptop looked up.
"I've isolated part of the network."
"Talk to me."
"The countdown isn't being broadcast from outside."
Everyone turned toward him.
"It's coming from inside this underground facility."
Daniel looked around the room.
"You mean he's here?"
The deputy nodded.
"Or someone is controlling the system locally."
Emma gripped Leo's hand.
"He never stayed in one place."
Daniel frowned.
"What do you mean?"
"There were speakers everywhere."
Leo answered this time.
"Sometimes we'd hear his voice from the walls."
"But we almost never saw him."
"So the man on the screen..."
Leo nodded.
"...might not even be in this building."
08:57
The timer continued to fall.
One deputy discovered a wall-mounted control panel hidden behind a cabinet.
Its screen displayed a digital map of the tunnels.
Several corridors flashed bright red.
Others were gray.
One section blinked green.
Collins stepped closer.
"What's green?"
The deputy tapped the display.
"Life-sign sensors."
Daniel's pulse quickened.
"There are people there?"
The deputy swallowed.
"It shows... six heat signatures."
Emma looked at the map.
"No."
She pointed farther east.
"There should be another room."
"There isn't."
"There is."
She traced her finger along the wall.
"They hid it."
Collins ordered the deputies to examine the concrete.
Within seconds, one officer called out.
"Hollow!"
Using a rescue ram, they smashed through the false wall.
Concrete dust exploded into the corridor.
Behind it...
Another passage.
Narrow.
Freshly painted.
The air inside was warm.
Almost immediately, they heard it.
Crying.
More than one child.
Daniel didn't wait.
He ran.
The hidden hallway ended at a reinforced steel door.
A keypad glowed beside it.
Locked.
One deputy pulled a breaching shotgun from his vehicle kit.
Collins raised a hand.
"Stand back."
The blast echoed through the tunnel.
The lock shattered.
The door swung inward.
Inside were five frightened children.
The oldest looked about twelve.
The youngest couldn't have been more than four.
They huddled together in terror until Leo stepped inside.
"It's okay," he said softly.
"They're here to help."
One little boy burst into tears.
"I thought nobody was coming."
Daniel knelt beside them.
"We're getting all of you out."
The children clung to the officers as paramedics who had entered through the now-secured main tunnel began leading them toward safety.
06:31
The timer continued.
Collins looked at the map again.
"Only one heat signature remains."
Daniel frowned.
"Where?"
The deputy zoomed in.
His face slowly lost its color.
"It's moving."
"Toward us?"
He shook his head.
"No."
"It's moving deeper underground."
Leo suddenly stiffened.
"I know where."
Daniel looked down.
"Where?"
Leo whispered two words.
"The Red Room."
Silence.
Emma's eyes filled with fear.
"No..."
Collins crouched beside them.
"What is the Red Room?"
Leo struggled to answer.
"It's where..."
His voice cracked.
"...where children disappeared."
Before anyone could ask another question, every light in the tunnel went out.
Complete darkness.
Then a backup generator rumbled to life.
Dim emergency lights flickered on.
A new message appeared on every nearby display.
05:59
FINAL STAGE ACTIVATED
At the end of the corridor...
May you like
A hidden elevator door slowly slid open.
Someone was waiting inside.
