Chapter 18 - When the Lights Went Out.
Darkness swallowed the tunnel completely.
Vanessa screamed once before forcing herself silent.
Ethan cursed and grabbed for Elena.
His fingers caught her sleeve but not her arm.
Elena dropped the leather case deliberately.
The metal clasp struck the concrete with a sharp crack.
Ethan fired toward the sound.
The gunshot exploded through the narrow passage.
Vanessa fell flat against the wall.
Elena crouched behind a support column and covered her stomach instinctively.
Emergency lights flickered red near the floor.
They revealed Ethan moving toward the dropped case.
The power failure had not been part of Elena's plan.
Someone else had cut the electricity.
A figure appeared behind Ethan.
For one terrible second, Elena thought Reese had entered too early.
Then the figure struck Ethan across the wrist with a metal bar.
The pistol fell.
Ethan turned and punched the attacker.
Red light caught the man's face.
Thomas.
Elena stared in disbelief.
"What are you doing here?"
Thomas staggered but stayed upright.
"Finishing what I should've stopped months ago."
Ethan lunged at him.
Vanessa kicked the pistol farther down the tunnel.
Elena grabbed the leather case and slammed it against the emergency alarm box.
A siren began howling.
Outside, Reese saw the tracker change direction beneath the theater.
He ordered the team inside.
Ethan heard the alarm and ran toward the river exit.
Thomas tried to follow but collapsed against the wall.
Elena knelt beside him.
"You should be in the hospital."
"Probably."
Vanessa stood several feet away, rubbing her wrists against the rope.
"He's going to the boat."
Elena pulled a small utility blade from the case lining.
She cut Vanessa free.
Vanessa stared at her.
"Why are you helping me?"
Elena looked directly into her eyes.
"Because I am not him."
The words hit Vanessa harder than anger would have.
Police footsteps thundered behind them.
Reese reached Elena first.
"Are you hurt?"
"No."
"Ethan went toward the river."
Officers raced past.
Reese looked at Thomas.
"How did you get here?"
Thomas managed a weak smile.
"Eleanor."
The old theater had a maintenance entrance unknown to Adrian and Ethan.
Eleanor remembered it from childhood performances and brought Thomas through it after he left the hospital against medical advice.
Reese looked furious.
"You could have gotten killed."
Thomas nodded.
"I know."
A shout came from the river exit.
Then another gunshot.
Everyone froze.
Reese ran.
Elena followed despite his order to stay back.
At the riverbank, officers surrounded an empty dock.
A speedboat moved into the darkness.
Ethan stood at the wheel.
He had escaped.
But something else lay on the dock.
A black smartphone.
Its screen was still recording.
Vanessa picked it up.
She looked at the last captured frame.
Ethan was not alone on the boat.
Adrian sat beside him.
Thomas later admitted Eleanor had not approved his reckless plan to enter the tunnel.
She had only shown him the maintenance door.
He went farther on his own after hearing that Elena was inside.
Eleanor slapped him lightly across the shoulder when paramedics arrived.
Then she hugged him.
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It was the first openly affectionate gesture Elena had ever seen from the matriarch toward an employee.
The Howard hierarchy was already breaking apart, and for once its collapse made the house feel more human.
