Chapter 5: Her Child Is Missing!

The countdown timer on the wall didn’t just tick down, it shattered.

00:00:00.

"It's starting," Garrick murmured, lowering his rifle as frost instantly crawled across the exterior glass.

 His eyes locked onto the master status board. "The global grid just flatlined. Every power plant, every satellite, every communication link from here to the capital... dead. Complete atmospheric collapse."

BZZZZT!

"Boss! Miss Vance! Open the gate! For God's sake, open the gate!"

Maya’s eyes narrowed as she switched on the external  camera feed.

There, huddled against doors, half-frozen in a blood-stained business suit, was Derek. 

His lips were already turning a shade of purple, his face bruised and swollen, clawing desperately at the metal with bleeding fingers. 

"Maya! Please!" Derek screamed into the camera lens, sobbing as he beat his ruined hands against the steel.

 "I was stupid! Chloe tricked me, I swear! I'm your husband, I'm Leo's father! Let me in! Just let me in, I'll freeze out here!"

Maya brought the speaker to her lip and said: 

"Derek,"

Derek stopped crying for a fraction of a second, pressing his ear against the cold metal. 

"Yes! Yes, Maya! Open the door!"

Maya let out a soft exhale.

"In my past life, when you threw me and my son out into the snow to die, you told me that the weak deserve to freeze," Maya whispere.

"Congratulations, Derek. You finally got what you paid for."

She flicked the master switch, cutting his screams off.

Maya turned away from the monitor, letting out a sharp breath of relief. She walked over to the heated living quarters, ready to put Leo to sleep

"Leo, sweetie, it's time for your bed time stories," Maya called out softly, stepping into the warm nursery. "Mommy is right here."

Silence answered her.

Maya’s steps faltered. The banklet she had wrapped him in was folded neatly on the sofa, still holding the faint warmth of his small body. But the room was entirely empty.

"Leo?" Maya called again, her voice tightening with a sudden spike of unease.

She checked the bathroom. Empty. She checked behind the privacy screens. Nothing.

Her heart hammered against her ribs. She spun around as Garrick walked into the room, his expression relaxed from the victory outside until he saw the panic gripping Maya's face.

"Maya? What is it? Is Leo already asleep?" Garrick asked.

"He's not here," Maya whispered, her blood running colder than the blizzard raging outside.

"What do you mean he's not here? The gates were locked, the biometric seals were active” Garrick stopped mid sentence as a realization hit him.

Maya rushed to the main wall console, her fingers flying across the interface to pull up the security logs for the past ten minutes. 

The screen flickered, displaying the timeline while they had been distracted by Derek at the gate.

Her breath hitched in her throat.

The logs showed that while Maya and Garrick were dealing with Derek at the front doors, a security override had been triggered deep within the subterranean foundation.

 Not from the outside, and not from the front vault.

From inside the private elevator shaft that connected directly to the master nursery.

[CRITICAL ALERT: SECTOR 4 INTERNAL ELEVATOR ACTIVATED]

[PASSENGER DETECTED: ONE ADULT, ONE MINOR]

[DESTINATION: SUB-LEVEL 4 - THE SEALED MAINTENANCE TUNNELS]

Maya stared at the screen, her mind racing back to the blueprints she had memorized when she bought the property. Sub-Level 4 wasn't part of her modern renovations.

 It was an old, classified government bunker built during the Cold War, a space her architectural contractors had marked as permanently sealed and structurally unstable.

She thought she had secured every inch of the fortress. She thought Leo was completely safe inside her billion-dollar walls.

BZZZZT!

A system notification flashed across her screen.

[BIOMETRIC MATCH CONFIRMED]

[UNKNOWN CO-SIGNATURE DETECTED IN SUB-LEVEL 4]

[SUBJECT: CHLOE... ALIVE]

Maya’s eyes widened in shock. Chloe hadn't been frozen to death by the blast the way Maya thought. 

Somehow, through a hidden pre-existing bunker tunnel beneath the command deck, the surviving traitor had dragged herself away and she had just taken Leo down into the tunnel with her.

Garrick stepped up beside her, his jaw clenching. He pulled the handle of his assault rifle.

"She's taking him down into the old tunnels," Garrick said, "And the external sensors show those lower tunnels aren't empty, Maya. There's life down there."

Maya didn't hesitate. She reached down to her holster, locking two armor piercing magazines into her belt, her eyes burning with a protective fury.

The end of the world had just begun. But for Maya Vance, the real war was happening right beneath her feet.

She was going down to hell to get her son back.

"Lock the upper citadel," Maya whispered.

 "We're going hunting."