Chapter 6 - The Steel Door
They took us underground.
The quarry looked abandoned from the road.
It wasn’t.
Behind rusted machinery and collapsed fencing, a freight elevator descended nearly sixty feet beneath the rock.
What waited below changed everything.
Steel doors.
Climate-controlled storage.
Pallets of military equipment.
Crates with serial numbers removed.
Optics.
Communication systems.
Drone components.
Weapons parts.
Enough stolen material to supply a small war.
Emily stared.
“My father found this.”
Harlan smiled.
“Your father should’ve minded his business.”
Her face went white.
“You killed him.”
“No.”
For the first time, Harlan sounded almost offended.
“I don’t kill people unless necessary.”
Butch chuckled.
Emily turned toward him.
Butch looked away.
Harlan led us deeper.
Cross was conscious, barely.
Two men carried him.
Rex remained beside me.
Nobody wanted to touch his leash.
Smart.
At the end of the corridor stood a heavy steel door.
Rex stopped.
Completely.
His nose lifted.
Then he began whining.
I had heard that sound only twice in his life.
Once when he found Larkin after the firefight.
And once after Sarah’s accident, when I brought home the coat she had worn that morning.
I looked down.
“What is it?”
Rex pulled toward the steel door.
Harlan’s expression changed.
Barely.
But enough.
I saw it.
“What’s behind there?”
“Storage.”
Rex pulled harder.
“That’s not storage.”
Harlan pointed the pistol at me.
“Keep moving.”
Rex refused.
I had never seen him refuse a movement command.
He scratched at the bottom of the door.
Whined again.
Then barked.
One sharp bark.
My heart began pounding.
“Open it.”
Harlan laughed.
“No.”
I stepped forward.
His gun rose.
“Jack.”
I ignored Cross.
“Open the door.”
“You’re in no position to make requests.”
Rex scratched harder.
Something moved behind the door.
A sound.
A chair scraping.
Then silence.
Emily heard it too.
Her eyes widened.
“There’s someone in there.”
Harlan’s jaw tightened.
That was confirmation.
I looked at Butch.
He suddenly wouldn’t meet my eyes.
“What’s in the room?”
Nothing.
“Butch.”
He swallowed.
“Harlan…”
“Shut up.”
I stared at Butch.
“You dumped ice water over a decorated war dog because someone paid you five thousand dollars. You’re not exactly a man of principle.”
His face reddened.
“But whatever’s behind that door scares you more than he does.”
I nodded toward Harlan.
“So tell me.”
Butch’s eyes flicked to the door.
Then he whispered, “A prisoner.”
Harlan hit him with the pistol.
Butch collapsed.
Emily screamed.
I moved.
Everything happened at once.
Rex launched before I gave the command.
Not toward Harlan.
Toward the man carrying Cross.
The man stumbled.
Cross dropped and rolled behind a crate.
Emily dove toward the wall.
Harlan fired.
The bullet hit metal.
I closed the distance.
My hand caught his weapon wrist.
We slammed into the steel door.
He was stronger than he looked.
We fought for the gun.
Rex had the other guard pinned by his sleeve.
Butch crawled toward the elevator.
Cross shouted something.
Another shot.
Then Harlan’s weapon skidded across the floor.
I drove him against the door.
He kneed me in the ribs.
Pain exploded through my side.
I held on.
Harlan grabbed my throat.
“You should have died overseas.”
That sentence froze me.
Not because of the threat.
Because of the wording.
I stared at him.
“What did you say?”
His face changed.
Too late.
I slammed him harder against the steel.
“You knew about the ambush.”
He smiled.
“Everybody knows about your famous dog.”
“No.”
I squeezed his wrist.
“You said I should have died overseas.”
Harlan’s smile vanished.
I leaned closer.
“You were involved.”
The lights went out.
Darkness swallowed everything.
Rex barked.
Emily shouted.
Someone ran.
Then emergency lighting came on, bathing the corridor in red.
Cross stood beside an electrical panel.
“Door!” he yelled.
I grabbed Harlan’s keys.
Rex was already there.
I unlocked the steel door.
Harlan screamed behind me.
“DON’T!”
That was the moment everything changed.
I pulled the door open.
The room beyond was small.
A desk.
A cot.
A lamp.
A woman stood in the corner.
Thin.
Pale.
Her dark hair was longer than I remembered.
For a second my mind refused to understand what my eyes were seeing.
Rex didn’t hesitate.
He ran past me.
The woman dropped to her knees.
He hit her hard enough to nearly knock her backward.
She wrapped both arms around him.
Rex made a sound I had never heard before.
Half whine.
Half cry.
The woman buried her face in his fur.
I couldn’t breathe.
Couldn’t move.
She lifted her head.
Tears covered her cheeks.
“Jack.”
The world disappeared.
The quarry.
Harlan.
Cross.
Everything.
Because the woman looking at me had been dead for eighteen months.
I had carried her ashes.
I had slept beside an empty space in our bed.
I had talked to her picture when nobody was around.
May you like
I had promised her I was done fighting.
Sarah was alive.
