Chapter 128 Four Minutes
Chapter 128 Four Minutes
Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-Eight: Four Minutes
Nobody argued.
For once.
Not because we trusted Gabriel completely.
Not because we understood the situation completely.
But because four minutes is a terrifyingly short amount of time.
“Move!”
Nina’s command cut through the room instantly.
Everyone sprang into action.
Federal officers began evacuating through the hidden library passage while contractors loyal to Dominic exchanged uncertain looks.
The balance of power had shifted.
Fast.
The Founders were exposed.
The archive had gone public.
Military forces were closing in.
And now the tunnel network was about to collapse.
Chaos had finally become reality.
Jonathan disappeared through the passage first.
Leading the way.
Remembering routes Eleanor had shown him years ago.
Routes nobody imagined would matter again.
“Come on!” he shouted.
Ruth followed immediately.
Then Natasha.
Then Elias.
I grabbed Eleanor’s journal from the desk as Maya pulled Clara toward the exit.
“Wait.”
Dominic’s voice stopped everyone.
We turned.
He stood in the center of the study.
Still.
Watching.
“You knew.”
His eyes were fixed on Gabriel.
“The entire time.”
Gabriel looked tired.
Older than ever.
“No.”
A pause.
Then:
“Not the entire time.”
Dominic laughed.
A broken sound.
“She never trusted me.”
Nobody answered.
Because everyone knew the truth.
Eleanor had understood Dominic before he understood himself.
She saw what he would become.
And she planned accordingly.
The detonator beeped again.
Faster.
Louder.
More urgent.
Three minutes, forty-one seconds.
“We’re leaving,” Nina said.
Dominic didn’t move.
Neither did Gabriel.
“Gabriel,” Clara whispered.
He looked at her.
And for a moment I saw genuine affection there.
The kind that comes from decades of guilt and regret.
“You remind her of herself.”
Clara’s eyes filled instantly.
“Don’t do this.”
Gabriel smiled sadly.
“That’s exactly what Eleanor would say.”
“No.”
This time Clara stepped forward.
“People don’t get to die for me anymore.”
The room went silent.
Because that wasn’t really about Gabriel.
It was about Eleanor.
About thirty years of loss.
Thirty years of people disappearing.
Sacrificing themselves.
Choosing death.
Gabriel understood immediately.
I saw it happen.
The smile vanished.
And slowly he nodded.
“Fair.”
Good.
Because I was getting very tired of martyrdom.
Another explosion echoed outside.
Closer.
The estate trembled violently.
Dust rained from the ceiling.
Three minutes.
“Move!” Nina shouted again.
This time Gabriel obeyed.
Everyone entered the passage.
Everyone except Dominic.
I stopped.
“Liam,” Maya said sharply.
I ignored her.
“Dominic.”
He looked at me.
The strange thing was he didn’t look dangerous anymore.
Just empty.
The certainty was gone.
The confidence.
The control.
All that remained was a man watching his life’s work collapse around him.
“You can still leave.”
His expression barely changed.
“Why?”
The question surprised me.
Not sarcastic.
Not manipulative.
Genuine.
“Because prison is still better than dying.”
Dominic laughed softly.
“You sound exactly like her.”
Maybe.
I didn’t know anymore.
Eleanor felt larger than memory now.
Every secret revealed another version of her.
Mother.
Strategist.
Victim.
Architect.
Monster.
Hero.
Human.
“Come with us.”
Dominic looked toward the shattered windows.
Toward the flashing lights outside.
The military vehicles.
The police.
The end.
“No.”
The answer came quietly.
Certain.
“Dominic—”
“You know what my problem was?”
His gaze returned to mine.
“I thought I was smarter than history.”
Silence.
“I thought if I improved the system, the system would become acceptable.”
A bitter smile touched his lips.
“But some things shouldn’t survive improvement.”
That was the closest thing to remorse I’d ever heard from him.
The detonator beeped again.
Two minutes, twenty seconds.
“Liam!”
Maya’s voice echoed from inside the passage.
I turned.
She was standing in the tunnel entrance.
Waiting.
Terrified.
Not leaving without me.
That did something to my chest.
Something painful.
Something warm.
And suddenly Eleanor’s letter came back to me.
Being loved should not feel like surviving a war.
Maybe this was what she meant.
Not sacrifice.
Not suffering.
Choosing people.
I looked at Dominic one final time.
Then held out my hand.
For one impossible second I thought he might take it.
His eyes dropped to it.
Studied it.
Considered it.
Then he smiled.
A small smile.
Almost sad.
“Go.”
The word echoed through the ruined study.
And I understood.
He wasn’t coming.
I turned and ran.
The tunnel passage stretched downward beneath the estate.
Narrow.
Concrete.
Old.
Jonathan led the group through the darkness while emergency lights flashed red overhead.
The deeper we moved, the more obvious the truth became.
These tunnels had been used.
Frequently.
For years.
Doors.
Storage rooms.
Transport tracks.
Holding areas.
Evidence of an entire hidden world.
A world Eleanor had decided deserved to die.
One minute, forty seconds.
We reached a reinforced security gate.
Jonathan entered a code immediately.
The mechanism groaned open.
Beyond it waited a large underground chamber.
And everyone stopped.
Rows of filing cabinets stretched into darkness.
Hundreds of them.
Maybe thousands.
Physical records.
Photographs.
Documents.
Financial ledgers.
Medical reports.
The Founder archive.
The original archive.
Not the secondary cache.
The real one.
“Oh my God,” Ruth whispered.
Gabriel stared at the endless rows.
Shock crossing his face.
“Eleanor…”
He sounded genuinely stunned.
Because even he hadn’t known.
She hid it here.
Beneath everyone.
Beneath the very network itself.
The detonator suddenly emitted a sharp warning tone.
Thirty seconds.
And then Clara noticed something attached to the nearest cabinet.
A note.
Written in Eleanor’s handwriting.
Her face went white.
“Liam.”
I took the note.
Read the first line.
And forgot how to breathe.