CHAPTER 6: The Workshop Beneath the Building

By sunrise, Celeste’s mother was in a secure hotel under police protection, and the damaged engineering bay had been sealed.

The police still lacked enough evidence to arrest Victor for the fire. The remote logs had been erased, and the two men at Luis’s house wore masks.

Luis called again from a disposable phone.

He said he had escaped through the back of a vehicle when Victor’s men stopped for fuel. He refused to reveal his location until Daniel promised not to involve the police.

“I’ve trusted the wrong people for seven years,” Luis said. “I won’t make that mistake again.”

Daniel asked what Victor wanted.

“The original hardware token,” Luis replied. “The physical second key. Software copies can be traced, but the token can authorize commands that look legitimate.”

Luis had hidden the device in Hart Automotive after Owen’s death. Victor believed it was still inside the old basement workshop, a section of the company scheduled for demolition.

Daniel, Naomi, and Celeste entered the basement through a service tunnel before dawn. Priya remained above with officers positioned two blocks away.

The workshop was preserved beneath dust: old battery packs, hand-drawn blueprints, and a rusted tool cabinet with Elias Hart’s name on it.

Celeste found a photograph pinned to the wall. Owen stood beside Elias, both smiling over the unfinished prototype.

On the back, Elias had written: O.W. refused to drive until every warning was cleared. He was right.

Celeste pressed the photograph to her chest.

Daniel searched the tool cabinet. Behind a false panel he found a narrow black device shaped like a car key.

The second key.

Before he could take it, the basement door slammed shut.

Victor Kane’s voice came through the old intercom.

“Thank you, Daniel. I knew grief would lead you to it.”

Gas began hissing from a pipe near the ceiling.

Naomi smelled solvent, not poison—fuel vapor from the demolition equipment stored nearby.

Victor intended to destroy the workshop and everyone in it.

Daniel wrapped his jacket around his hand, broke the glass of a fire cabinet, and removed an emergency axe. The service door was reinforced steel, but the wall beside it was old plaster over brick.

Celeste pointed to a faded maintenance map. “There’s a ventilation crawlspace behind that shelf.”

They pulled the shelving unit aside and found a narrow opening.

Naomi entered first, then Celeste. Daniel pushed the second key into his pocket and followed as smoke began pouring through the workshop.

They crawled toward a faint square of morning light.

Behind them, an ignition clicked.

The basement erupted with a roar that chased them through the tunnel.