Chapter 15 - THE ROOM WAS RIGGED TO KILL THE MAN THEY CAME TO SAVE
I stopped with my hand inches from the lock.
“What kind of trigger?”
“Pressure release.”
Eli nodded toward the pipe.
“Chain goes slack, circuit closes.”
Cole swore.
Sarah whispered, “Can we cut the power?”
“Maybe,” Eli said. “Maybe that’s the trigger too.”
Rex sniffed along the wall.
He sat beside a gray electrical box.
Then moved three feet and sat again.
Explosives in more than one place.
Mercer had built the room around a choice.
Save Eli and risk everyone.
Leave him and live with it.
He knew me well.
Too well.
“Jack,” Eli said, “get them out.”
“No.”
“You haven’t changed.”
“Neither have you.”
“That’s the problem.”
I examined the chain without touching it.
The anchor ran through a metal eye into the wall.
“Where’s the sensor?”
“Behind me.”
I moved slowly around the pipe.
A thin wire ran from the chain to a small switch.
Old design.
Simple.
Not something I wanted to guess at.
Then Rex shoved his nose under a loose floor mat.
Beneath it was a second wire.
That one led away from the explosives.
Toward a camera.
“He’s watching,” I said.
Eli laughed weakly.
“Always.”
I looked straight into the lens.
“You want to see me make a choice, Colonel?”
I pulled my pistol.
Cole said, “Jack—”
I fired at the camera.
The lens exploded.
Nothing else did.
“Good,” I said. “Now he can wonder.”
We found a rear junction box outside the room and traced the dedicated circuit. Sarah noticed the line labels didn’t match.
“This one is fake,” she said.
“How do you know?”
“Because whoever labeled it spells ‘auxiliary’ worse than you.”
Despite everything, I laughed.
Ten minutes later, we isolated the trigger without releasing the chain.
I cut Eli free.
No explosion.
Rex nearly knocked him over trying to stay pressed against him.
Eli gripped my shoulder.
“You should hate me.”
“I’ll schedule it later.”
He smiled once.
Then his face went serious.
“Mercer’s moving tonight.”
“Moving what?”
“Not weapons.”
Eli looked at Cole.
“People.”
Lauren stiffened.
“The missing ones?”
“Some. But that’s not the real operation.”
“What is?” I asked.
Eli took a breath.
“The Vipers aren’t his army. They’re camouflage.”
“For what?”
“Former contractors. Dirty cops. men he owned overseas. They’ve been entering Ash Creek in small groups for months.”
Cole’s face went pale.
“How many?”
Eli looked toward the sunrise beyond the barred window.
“Enough to take the town in ten minutes.”
As if on cue, every light in the kennel went out.
Then the emergency sirens in Ash Creek began screaming.
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