Chapter 11 - THE SHADOW IN THE DUCT
Trapped inside the narrow, freezing aluminum ventilation duct, Emma pressed her tiny chest against the cold metal, holding her breath. The beam of her small wrist light was turned off; only the faint glow of the security control room below leaked through the floor grate.
Directly underneath her sat Captain Vargas. His heavy combat boots rested on the console desk as he adjusted his tactical radio. Beside him lay a high-tech detonator connected to the charges planted on the cellar vault doors where Alejandro and Elena were trapped.
"Charges are set," Vargas spoke into his headset, his voice laced with cold indifference. "We blow the vault in ten minutes. Make sure the cleanup crew is ready."
Emma’s heart hammered furiously against her ribs. Ten minutes. In ten minutes, the bad men were going to hurt her uncle and her mother.
She looked at her pink thỏ (rabbit) backpack. The silver master override flash drive was tucked inside the front pocket. The main server rack—with its pulsing blue USB port—was situated on the far side of the room, barely fifteen feet away from Vargas’s chair.
To reach it, she couldn't stay in the main duct. She had to crawl sideways into a smaller branch line that led directly over the server rack.
Emma squirmed inch by inch, keeping her movements completely silent. But as her foot dragged across an unfastened metal seam, a soft, high-pitched scrape echoed through the metal pipe.
SCRATCH.
Down below, Vargas instantly froze. He took his boots off the desk and stood up, his hand dropping to the holster at his hip. He tilted his head toward the ceiling, eyes narrowing at the air vent directly above him.
"Who's up there?" Vargas growled, stepping onto a chair to inspect the vent grate.
Emma pulled her legs in and backed away into the shadows, her tiny hands covering her mouth to muffle her rapid breathing.
Vargas unclasped his flashlight, shining a harsh white beam up into the ductwork. The light cut through the dust, missing Emma by mere inches as she squeezed herself behind a heavy damper valve.
"Probably just rats in the old pipes," a guard standing by the door called out. "Forget the roof, Captain. Lucas wants us at the cellar doors before the timer runs out."
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Vargas hesitated, lingering for a second longer before stepping down from the chair. "Right. Let's move."
The heavy metal door of the security room clicked shut as the guards stepped out into the hallway. Emma was left alone in the control room.
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