Jonah looked toward the darkness.
"So we're still on our own."
"Until we get those workers out."
Nell checked her watch.
7:11.
Less than an hour before Jonah's original deadline.
"Then we stop talking."
She handed one of the battery packs to Claire.
"Can you carry this?"
"Yes."
"Good."
Jonah lifted another.
Nell took the third.
Claire looked at the older woman.
"Who exactly are you?"
Nell switched on Henry's headlamp.
"Tonight?"
She looked toward the lower tunnels.
"Apparently the person getting everyone home."
Gray Mesa had changed since Henry's time.
The tunnels were brighter.
New electrical cables followed the walls.
Modern ventilation ducts hung beside rusted pipes.
But beneath the upgrades, Nell recognized the same mine.
The same claustrophobic passages.
The same metallic smell.
The same distant groaning of rock carrying millions of tons of pressure.
They moved downward.
Claire explained what she had learned.
Mesa Meridian's illegal dumping had begun four years earlier.
Calder Vale was not personally supervising every shipment, but investigators believed he had approved a secret program run by his chief security officer, Roland Sutter.
Sutter had previously managed private security operations overseas.
His solution to problems was simple.
Buy them.
Threaten them.
Or remove them.
"And Peter?" Nell asked.
Claire hesitated.
"We believe he was paid nearly four hundred thousand dollars over three years."
Nell kept walking.
"What for?"
"Inspection schedules. Emergency-response plans. Information about state regulators."
Nell felt her grief transforming into anger.
Henry had trusted Peter.
She had fed him at her table.
He had carried Henry's coffin.
Some betrayals were too large to understand immediately.
They had to be carried first.
At level four they found the first guard.
Jonah spotted him before he saw them.
They retreated behind machinery.
"No shooting unless absolutely necessary," Claire whispered.
"Agreed," Nell said.
Jonah picked up a loose metal nut and threw it down a side passage.
It clattered loudly.
The guard turned.
Claire moved behind him with practiced speed.
Within seconds he was unconscious and restrained with plastic ties.
Nell stared.
Claire shrugged.
"Desk job."
"Of course."
They took the guard's radio.
A man's voice crackled from it.
"Team Three, report."
Claire imitated the guard's clipped response.
"Clear."
They continued.
At level five the air became noticeably worse.
Jonah's breathing grew heavier.
Nell checked a small oxygen meter.
"Eighteen percent."
Claire looked concerned.
"Normal is around twenty-one."
"At seventeen, judgment starts going."
They found the emergency ventilation junction.
The backup battery housing was empty.
Jonah installed the first pack.
Nothing happened.
"Come on."
He checked the connections.
Nell examined the panel.
A wire had been cut.
"Deliberately."
Jonah swore.
Claire looked at the tunnel.
"They knew you might bring batteries."
Nell followed the damaged cable.
"We can bypass it."
"How?"
She opened Henry's tool pouch.
"My husband was incapable of throwing away wire."
Ten minutes later the fan coughed.
Then began turning.
Air moved through the tunnel.
Jonah grinned.
"Nell, I could kiss you."
"Try it and I'll turn the fan back off."
They followed the airflow toward the crusher room.
Voices echoed ahead.
Nell extinguished her headlamp.
Through a gap in the machinery they saw a steel door.
Two armed guards stood outside.
Behind it came coughing.
Jonah's face changed.
"Micah."
He moved forward.
Claire grabbed him.
"Not yet."
Nell surveyed the chamber.
Overhead ran an old ore chute.
She remembered Henry describing the system.
A mechanical release lever sat along the wall.
She whispered a plan.
Jonah stared at her.
"That's insane."
"It's loud."
"It's also insane."
"Those qualities often overlap."
Claire almost smiled.
They separated.
Jonah limped toward the far side of the chamber.
Claire positioned herself near the door.
Nell climbed a short maintenance ladder toward the ore-chute lever.
When Jonah reached position, he tossed a wrench.
Both guards turned.
Nell pulled.
Nothing.
The lever had rusted.
She pulled harder.
Her chest tightened.
The cardiologist's voice returned.
Avoid strain.
Not now.
Nell placed both feet against the wall and yanked.
The lever broke free.
The ancient ore chute opened with a scream of metal.
Hundreds of pounds of loose gravel crashed into an empty hopper.
The noise was deafening.
Both guards ran toward it.
Claire struck the first.
Jonah tackled the second.
His injured ankle buckled, but momentum carried both men down.
The guard reached for his weapon.
Nell dropped from the ladder and kicked it away.
Claire restrained them.
Jonah crawled to the steel door.
"Micah!"
"Jonah?"
The voice came from inside.
Jonah found the keys.
The door opened.
Twelve people sat inside.
Some were coughing.
One man was unconscious.
A woman in an engineer's vest cried when the fresh air reached her.
A younger man pushed through the group.
Jonah grabbed him.
The brothers collided in an embrace.
For several seconds neither spoke.
Then Micah pulled back.
"Your face looks terrible."
Jonah laughed.
"You should see my motorcycle."
Nell entered and immediately knelt beside the unconscious worker.
Weak pulse.
Shallow breathing.
"Oxygen deprivation."
Claire helped move him toward the ventilation duct.
Nell treated the others.
Twelve alive.
For the first time that evening, she allowed herself to believe they might actually succeed.
Then the stolen radio came alive.
"All teams, lockdown. Intruders on level five."
Claire froze.
Another voice followed.
Peter Danner.
"Nell."
Her blood turned cold.
"Nell, I know you're listening."
Jonah looked at her.
Peter continued.
"I saw your truck near the north ridge."
Nell reached for the radio.
Claire shook her head.
Nell pressed the button anyway.
"I'm listening."
Peter exhaled.
"You shouldn't be here."
"I was thinking the same thing about you."
"Get those people back in the room."
"No."
"You don't understand what's happening."
"You helped somebody try to kill Jonah."
"Vale told me Reddick was stealing company evidence."
"And you believed him?"
Silence.
Nell's voice hardened.
"Did you believe him when he paid you too?"
Peter did not answer.
That was answer enough.
Then another voice came over the radio.
Deeper.
Calm.
Roland Sutter.
"Mrs. Vance, you've created a difficult situation."
"I've been accused of that before."
"You have twelve people who belong to us."
Nell looked around.
Every rescued worker heard him.
One woman whispered, "Belong?"
Nell's voice became ice.
"People don't belong to you."
Sutter continued as though she hadn't spoken.
"There's only one usable route from level five to the surface."
Nell glanced at Henry's map.
Sutter was wrong.
But he didn't know that.
"Bring me the flash drive," he said, "and you may leave."
Jonah shook his head.
Claire mouthed, Keep him talking.
Nell pressed the button.
"And if I refuse?"
"Then I'll seal the mine."
The rescued workers began murmuring.
"With your people still inside?" Nell asked.
A pause.
"They knew the risks."
"So did my husband."
Silence.
Then Peter's voice.
"Nell, listen to me. Sutter wired the main shaft."
Jonah's face changed.
"If anyone attempts to come up, he'll bring it down."
Claire whispered, "Federal teams can't enter."
Peter continued.
"I'm sorry."
Nell closed her eyes.
"Are you?"
"Yes."
"Then help us."
Sutter interrupted.
"Peter."
The single word contained a warning.
Nell understood.
There was still a part of Peter Danner that remembered who he had once been.
She pressed the radio.
"Henry trusted you."
No answer.
"He taught you how to read a blast pattern."
Silence.
"He told me once that you were the best apprentice he ever had."
"Stop."
"You stood beside me at his funeral."
"Nell."
"If you're sorry, prove it."
For several seconds only static filled the radio.
Then Peter said quietly, "Level three. East wall. Old powder conduit."
Nell's eyes widened.
Sutter shouted, "What did you say?"