Chapter 4 - The Trapped Saboteur
"There's someone in there!" I yelled, stepping closer to the steel door. I knocked hard against the cold metal. "Hello?! Is anyone in there? Can you hear me?"
A weak, raspy voice responded from the other side. "Help... the vent... the chemical line is open... I can't breathe!"
Matthias gasped, recognizing the voice instantly. "David?!"
David Dre was Matthias's younger brother—the black sheep of the family who managed the local logistics operations in Boston. Everyone assumed David was upstairs in the ballroom drinking scotch with his father.
"David!" Matthias screamed, slamming his fists against the door. "What are you doing in there?! Open the door!"
"I can't!" David coughed violently, his breath sounding ragged and wet—a classic sign of acute chemical pulmonary edema. "The lock... it triggered automatically when I inserted the flash drive! The system was rigged, Matthias! Dad rigged it!"
The words hung in the freezing basement air like a death sentence.
"What did you say?" Matthias whispered, staggering back. "Dad?"
"Dad set the timer!" David wheezed, his voice growing weaker by the second. "He told me to come down here and download the secondary ledger... he said it was for the Hensley deal. But as soon as I plugged into the terminal, the door locked, and the fire-suppression vents started pumping in chlorine gas! He set us up, Matthias! He wanted the records destroyed, and he wanted me inside so it looked like an accident caused by my negligence!"
I immediately took charge. "Arthur! The gas is chlorine! If he breathes it in for more than five minutes, his lungs will dissolve! We need to break that seal!"
"The door is reinforced steel, Serena!" Arthur said, examining the frame with his flashlight. "We can't breach it without heavy machinery!"
"The ventilation duct!" I pointed up toward the ceiling where a galvanized steel air pipe ran along the concrete beam. "That pipe feeds air into the vault! If we can sever the intake pipe and pump fresh air in—or drop a neutralizing agent down the line—we can buy him time!"
Matthias stared at me in shock. "Neutralizing agent? What neutralizing agent?!"
"Chlorine gas is an acid-forming oxidant!" I yelled, my trauma-nurse instincts kicking in with absolute clarity. "Baking soda! Ammonia or dilute sodium bicarbonate will neutralize the gaseous chlorine! There are three industrial boxes of baking soda in the commercial pantry upstairs!"
"I'll get them!" Matthias shouted, turning and sprinting up the stone stairs like a man possessed.
"Arthur," I said, turning to my uncle. "Check the emergency breaker panel near the wine cellar! If Richard set an automated thermal charge, it's running on a secondary backup battery. Cut the main relays!"
While Arthur rushed toward the breaker panel, I stood by the steel door, pressing my mouth against the keyhole gap. "David! Listen to me! This is Serena! I need you to lie flat on the floor! Cover your nose and mouth with your shirt! Do not stand up! Chlorine gas is heavier than air, but the thermal draft will push it upward first!"
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"Serena..." David wheezed, his voice fading. "I'm sorry... I helped him hide the offshore accounts... I didn't know he was going to burn down the house..."
"Save your energy, David!" I commanded. "Stay down! We are getting you out!"
