Chapter 6 - Escape from the Depths
The guard raised his weapon, his finger tightening around the trigger.
But Ethan had spent eleven years studying structural weaknesses. He didn't look at the gun; he looked at the rusted steel chain hanging from the gantry crane directly above the guard's head. The chain was secured to a loose tension pulley near the wall.
With a sudden, explosive burst of speed, Ethan didn't run away—he lunged toward the wall, slamming his full body weight into the rusted release lever of the crane.
The lever groaned, the gears stripped, and the heavy, two-ton steel hook of the crane came crashing down through the rotted wooden floorboards.
The impact was deafening. The entire concrete floor of the warehouse shuddered, and a massive cloud of dust and debris erupted into the air, obscuring everyone's vision.
"Shoot him!" Gary screamed through the dust.
A shot rang out, the bullet ricocheting off a metal container near Ethan’s head.
Ethan didn't wait. He sprinted through the blinding dust toward Claire. He grabbed her arm, pulling her behind a rusted boiler as another bullet tore through the air where they had been standing a second before.
"Are you okay?" Ethan whispered, using a pocket knife he kept in his pocket to quickly slice through the zip-ties on her wrists.
"I... I think so," Claire stammered, her hands shaking as they were freed. "Ethan, I’m so sorry. I should have listened to you ten months ago."
"We don't have time for apologies," Ethan said, peering around the corner of the boiler. "We need to get out of here. There’s a loading dock on the water side. If we can get to the pier, we can lose them in the old shipyards."
"Gary has men at the front," Claire warned.
"Then we go through the back," Ethan said.
He grabbed her hand, and together they ran through the dark, labyrinthine corridors of the abandoned shipyard. Behind them, they could hear the heavy footsteps of Gary's guards echoing off the concrete, their flashlights cutting through the shadows.
"They're heading toward the docks!" a voice shouted.
Ethan led Claire down a narrow staircase that led to the lower pumping station. The air here was freezing, the floor covered in an inch of stagnant river water.
"Ethan, my foot—" Claire gasped, stumbling as her heel caught on a rusted pipe.
Ethan caught her before she hit the water. He didn't hesitate. He picked her up, throwing her over his shoulder, and continued running through the damp tunnel.
"Put me down! You're hurt!" Claire cried, noticing the dark smear of blood on his shoulder where a piece of flying concrete had cut him.
"I’m fine," Ethan grunted, his lungs burning as he pushed through a heavy iron door that led out onto the wooden pier.
The cold air of Lake Erie hit them, the waves crashing violently against the wooden pilings below. The sky was dark grey, the rain starting to fall in heavy, icy sheets.
At the end of the pier was an old, rusted patrol boat—a relic of the shipyard's active days. It was tied to the dock with thick hemp ropes.
Ethan set Claire down. "Can you hotwire a boat?"
Claire blinked in surprise. "I run an aerospace company, Ethan. I don’t steal boats."
"Well, you’re about to learn," Ethan said. He jumped onto the deck of the boat, pulling her down after him. "The ignition panel is under the steering console. Use the red and yellow wires. I'll untie the lines."
As Ethan scrambled back onto the dock to untie the thick ropes, a figure stepped out of the shadow of the warehouse door.
It was Gary Holt.
He held a sleek black pistol, his face twisted in a mask of absolute fury. "It’s over, Ethan. You've run out of structural options."
He raised the gun, aiming directly at Ethan’s head.
But before he could pull the trigger, Claire slammed her hand onto the boat's control console. The ancient diesel engine roared to life with a deafening, smoky belch, the sudden vibration of the deck throwing Gary's aim off.
The bullet struck the wooden dock, inches from Ethan's boot.
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Ethan grabbed the cut rope, lunged off the dock, and landed hard on the deck of the boat just as Claire slammed the throttle forward.
The boat surged away from the pier, leaving Gary standing in the rain, screaming in rage as the gap between them widened into the safety of the dark, stormy lake.
