Chapter 5 - The Keypad in the Dark
By four o'clock that morning, Ethan stood at the bottom of the narrow stone staircase, holding a heavy tactical flashlight in his left hand while baby Leo remained upstairs under Thomas's personal protection.
The air at the bottom of the shaft was ice-cold and dead quiet. Before him stood a reinforced titanium door set deep into the solid granite bedrock beneath the mansion foundation.
Beside the door frame sat a heavy brass keypad with six worn mechanical buttons, its surface covered in a faint layer of dust.
Ethan raised his flashlight, illuminating a small brass plaque mounted above the keypad frame: Property of the Sterling Trust, 1996.
Ethan touched the cold brass buttons with his fingertips. He remembered his father's birth date, his mother's anniversary, and the combination to the family safe in New York.
He pressed six digits into the pad: 0-4-1-2-8-8.
May you like
The mechanical lock mechanism groaned deeply within the stone wall, followed by the heavy, echoing thud of three internal steel deadbolts sliding back.
The heavy titanium door swung open two inches, releasing a gust of cool, sterile air into the stairwell.
