Chapter 8 - THE CHILDREN IN THE TOWER
Julian removed the children from school using an old emergency authorization.
He told staff that Maya had been hospitalized.
By the time the school called her, he was gone.
Traffic cameras showed his SUV entering the Caldwell Meridian construction site.
Adrian’s vehicle arrived six minutes later.
The tower had forty-two unfinished floors.
Elevators were not operational.
Hundreds of rooms, shafts, and service corridors remained open.
Police established a perimeter.
The brothers called Detective Ortiz from inside.
Julian demanded the basement server.
Adrian demanded the geotechnical evidence and every copy of the forged engineering reports.
If the demands were not met, they threatened to leave with the children through an underground service tunnel.
Maya sat inside the command vehicle.
Her face had gone completely still.
“They will use the children as shields.”
“Julian has done it before.”
I should have remained at the hospital.
Instead, I signed a discharge form against medical advice.
My head throbbed.
My stitches pulled beneath the bandage.
I went to the site because I knew the structure better than the officers did.
The original service plans had been developed during my firm’s bidding phase.
I remembered an unfinished seismic joint connecting the main tower to the parking structure.
It would not appear on the revised plans Adrian stole.
“There is a maintenance passage beneath the eastern retaining wall.”
Detective Ortiz studied the map.
“Can a tactical team enter?”
“Yes.”
“But the excavation supports were changed.”
“The passage may be unstable.”
Maya looked at me.
“Where would Julian take the children?”
“The highest finished mechanical floor.”
“He likes height.”
“He says people listen when they can see how far they might fall.”
The thirty-sixth floor contained the main mechanical refuge area.
It had reinforced walls and access to the exterior crane platform.
Adrian likely wanted the lower laboratory.
The brothers had separate goals.
That could divide them.
Police entered through the eastern passage.
I remained in the command vehicle with Maya.
Then the building sensors reported movement.
A temporary support column had shifted.
The tower’s eastern side settled less than half an inch.
To everyone else, the number sounded small.
To me, it was a warning.
Adrian had begun destroying the soil samples.
He had also damaged a support system connected to the excavation wall.
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If the wall failed, the parking structure could collapse into the tower’s basement.
And the only safe escape route for Maya’s children would disappear.
