Chapter 12
Chapter 12 — Collateral and Other Terms of Endearment
Elara enters the Brooklyn Navy Yard warehouse through the service tunnel at 11 PM as planned. She discovers DuVall bound to a chair, used as bait. Kael makes his entrance through the cargo door, drawing Cross's security (Sutherland and Briar). In the chaos, Elara reaches Mercer and records his admission of involvement with Cross's operation. Cross attempts to leverage the stolen surveillance drives against Elara, but she reveals the micro-cameras she planted are recording everything. Mercer panics and flees. Kael subdues Briar while Elara frees DuVall. Cross escapes with Sutherland through a side exit. The chapter ends with Elara and Kael regrouping outside, possessing new evidence but having lost Cross, who now has nothing left to lose.
The service tunnel smelled like every service tunnel I'd ever entered—standing water, rust, the particular mustiness of concrete that had been wet for decades and intended to stay that way. My boots found the puddles by sound rather than sight; the darkness inside was comprehensive, the kind that made your eyes ache from trying to extract something from nothing.
I moved by count. Twelve steps from the entrance to the first turn. Eight more to the junction where the tunnel split toward loading dock and interior. I'd memorized the layout from Kael's sketches, but memory and reality have an argument in moments like these—memory insists on clean lines and measured distances, reality responds with debris and shadows that shift when you're not looking.
The interior door was unlocked. That was my first warning. A building that was supposed to be empty doesn't leave doors unlocked unless someone wants you inside badly enough to remove obstacles.
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