Chapter 14 - THE ABANDONED COURTROOM
The annex stood beside a dried riverbed.
Its windows were boarded.
Water stains covered the stone walls.
Michael entered through the main doors.
Detective Collins and I watched the pen transmitter on a digital map.
Federal agents surrounded the property beyond the tree line.
The signal moved through the lobby and stopped inside an old courtroom.
Michael’s microphone transmitted faint audio.
“Put the folder on the table,” Sloan ordered.
“Where is Lily?”
“Alive.”
“I want to see her.”
“You do not make demands.”
Paper moved across wood.
Sloan examined the documents.
“The code.”
“Bring Lily in.”
A door opened.
My daughter’s voice came through the receiver.
“Uncle Michael?”
I closed my eyes.
She sounded frightened but conscious.
“I am here,” Michael said.
“Where is my dad?”
“He is coming.”
Sloan struck the table.
“Do not lie to her.”
Michael lowered his voice.
“Lily, remember the game we played when the power went out?”
There was a pause.
“The quiet game?”
“Yes.”
“Close your eyes and count the doors.”
I understood.
Months earlier, Michael had taught Lily to identify exits during a thunderstorm.
He was telling her to study the room.
Sloan demanded the code.
Michael read the first half.
“The rest comes after Lily walks outside.”
Sloan laughed.
“You still think you control this meeting.”
A second man searched Michael.
He found no transmitter.
The pen remained inside his shirt pocket.
Lily whispered something too softly for the microphone.
Michael repeated it.
“Three doors.”
She had counted the exits.
Detective Collins examined the building plans.
The courtroom had a main entrance, a judge’s chamber, and a prisoner corridor leading toward the basement.
Agents prepared to breach all three.
Then the transmitter began moving.
Sloan forced Michael and Lily through the prisoner corridor.
They descended beneath the courthouse.
The basement connected to old storm tunnels running beneath Lake Briar Road.
Sloan had planned an escape route.
Agents entered the courtroom.
It was empty.
On the table, they found Anna’s blue folder.
Sloan had taken only the page containing the account code.
The pen signal moved underground.
Collins and I followed a tactical team into the tunnel.
Water reached our ankles.
Ahead, Lily cried out.
A gunshot echoed beneath the road.
May you like
The transmitter stopped moving.
Michael’s microphone went silent.
