Page 436 of Hidden Depths
Mom held Calle the moment she reached the bottom.
Thomas stood beside Nathan.
Bruised.
Bloody.
Still refusing help.
“Where is Ross?” Calle asked.
“In the lower passage,” Ward answered.
Thomas looked toward the open door beneath the stairs.
“He’s going to Elias.”
“The body?” I asked.
“And the records James buried with him.”
“Why now?”
“Because the gate is resetting,” Thomas said. “When the lower tunnels flood, the current will tear open Elias’s grave.”
Ross didn’t need us to open the second gate.
He needed the flood to destroy what waited behind it.
Ward checked the timer.
00:13:42.
Nathan looked toward Mom.
“Take Thomas and Calle outside.”
Thomas shook his head.
“I know the tunnels.”
“You can barely stand.”
“I know the tunnels.”
Mom stepped beside him.
“And I know the closing sequence.”
Nathan closed his eyes.
“I miss the years when none of you were speaking to me.”
Mom touched his cheek.
“No, you don’t.”
His eyes opened.
