Chapter 20 - Mia #2
William rushed out, followed by Julie. Both looked relieved to see them.
As William ushered them into the house, he told them that he’d told Julie everything. He wanted no more secrecy, as he felt it put their loved ones in danger.
Mia had to agree.
As they walked in, it was like coming home.
Everything was the same as she remembered. The dark wood floors. The large staircase. The chandelier in the foyer.
Flashes of her as a little girl rushed through her mind. Running through these halls with her friend...
Paul.
“What happened to Paul?” Mia suddenly asked William, the question bursting out before she could stop it.
William’s eyes darkened. His face aged a decade in seconds.
“He died fourteen years ago. His son Brian was only two,” William said quietly. “He was also a doctor, and so was his wife. They were doing Doctors Without Borders somewhere in Africa and contracted a rare disease…”
He didn’t need to continue, as Mia understood and swallowed the lump in her throat.
A knock came at the door, distracting her.
Before anyone could react, Lila turned and pulled it open.
Brian stood there, looking uncertain.
“Hi,” he greeted them. “Hope it’s okay that I’m here?”
“Of course,” Milly was the first to answer. “I was going to come get you.” She stepped back to let him in. “Everyone who knows about this, we need to keep you all together.”
William ushered them further into the house and began showing them to their rooms.
As they climbed the stairs, Lila spoke up. “So you don’t have any renovations?”
Her voice was accusatory as she pinned William with a glare.
“No,” William admitted, looking sheepish. “Sorry, but I was protecting your mother.”
“It’s okay, William,” Mia told him. “I understand.”
She glanced around the room he’d brought Lila to, and her breath caught.
“This was my room.”
“Yes,” William said, nodding.
“Mom, look,” Lila squealed.
Mia turned to see Lila at the bookshelf.
“Uncle William has Gran’s books on David Dare.”
Mia looked at William, amazed. “I thought Mom only published one copy for me, which I passed on to Lila.”
William smiled. “I insisted she send me a copy of each of them.”
Lila was already flipping through them, her brow furrowing. Mia could all but see her daughter’s brilliant mind ticking over.
“This is your house, Uncle William,” Lila said suddenly. She turned the cartoon picture toward him. “This is my favorite of all the stories. David Dare and the Secret in the Basement.”
“Yes,” William acknowledged. “Your grandmother was a brilliant surgeon, writer, and illustrator.”
“Uh-huh,” Lila said, engrossed in the book.
“Come, let me take you to your room,” William said to Mia. “I’ve put you in the one beside Lila’s, and Eve is in the guest suite down the hall.” He swallowed, his eyes darkening. “Is there any word about her or David?”
Mia shook her head, then stopped. She turned back to Lila’s room and stuck her head in.
Lila was still standing there, engrossed in the book.
“Lila, you need to charge your phone.”
“What?” Lila’s head sprang up, and she stared blankly at Mia. “Oh... No... it’s fine.”
Mia’s brow furrowed. “Then why did you lie?”
“Because we needed to be here at Circle Pond,” Lila said simply. She put the book under her arm and pulled out her phone. “Look.” She walked toward William and Mia, holding up the screen. “Aunt Eve’s car has stopped about two miles from here.”
“There’s nothing in that area,” William told them, frowning. “I know because I’ve just bought that land to expand Circle Pond.”
“Are you sure?” Mia asked, her heart pounding.
William nodded, his frown deepening.
“What about this weird bunker thing?” Lila pulled up some images on her phone.
“This guy goes around the States looking for old World War II bunkers or just people who’ve built them because they’re worried about the end of days.
He’s called The Bunker Chaser. Look, he posted this last year.
” She showed them the screen. “It’s on that land right near Circle Pond. ”
“I don’t remember that on the land,” William said, leaning closer to look.
Just then, there was another knock on the front door, and William looked apologetically at Mia.
“Don’t worry, I know where my room is,” Mia assured him.
William nodded and rushed off.
Mia took this opportunity to turn to Lila. “Honey, we need to talk about David.”
But Lila shook her head, her jaw set stubbornly. “We can talk later. Right now, we need to save Aunt Eve.”
“We are not going to do that,” Mia stood firm. “Milly and Nolan and Dan, who I believe is on his way, will do that.”
Footsteps on the stairs distracted them.
They turned to see Nolan and Brian coming up quickly. As they reached Lila’s room, Nolan pushed them all inside, closed the door, and locked it.
“What on earth?” Mia gasped.
“Shh,” Nolan put his finger to his lips. His eyes darted around the room, sharp and alert.
“That dude Calvin arrived,” Brian filled them in, his voice hushed.
“Nolan and I were in the kitchen. I was showing him the house while Julie was showing Milly around... William answered the door...” He swallowed hard.
“There was a gun. A big gun.” His eyes widened.
“Nolan grabbed me, and we came up the back stairs from the kitchen.”
Mia’s blood ran cold.
“If we can get to the basement...” Lila told them, leafing through the David Dare book in her hand. “There’s a tunnel that goes to William’s brother’s house.” She turned the book to show them a cartoon illustration. “I think Gran was writing you a blueprint on how to escape Uncle William’s house.”
“Lila, that’s just fiction,” Mia stated, but something about it rang true. A memory hovered at the edge of her mind, just out of reach.
“Well...” Lila said, her voice matter-of-fact.
“The way I see it, we can wait here for the large gun-toting Calvin to find us...” Her eyes scanned the room, then landed on the bathroom.
She glanced at the book in her hand, then disappeared into the bathroom.
“Found it.” She popped her head out a few moments later. “It’s just like in Gran’s book.”
Mia looked at her daughter in awe. She was having way too much fun in this dangerous situation.
She made a mental note to go over every one of those books her mother had written again.
They went into the bathroom, and Lila had opened the long storage closet, revealing a door behind it.
“I knew from the outside of Uncle William’s house it looked a little bigger than it is when you walk inside,” Lila breathed. “Come on, this way...”
“Nope,” Nolan said, pulling out his gun. “I’ll lead the way.”
“But I have the book,” Lila held it up.
“You can tell me where to go,” Nolan told her, and Mia’s heart jolted at how protective he was being of her daughter.
“Fine,” Lila relented. “I need to close everything and reset it anyway, so no one can follow us.” She grinned. “There’s a puzzle you have to solve to get the closet to open.”
That sounded like her father’s work, Mia thought.
They stepped into the dark tunnel. They all pulled out their phones and switched on the flashlights.
The tunnel was narrow, the walls lined with old brick. It smelled of earth and age.
“I wonder if William knows about these tunnels?” Mia asked as they walked.
“I wonder if my grandmother does,” Brian snorted. “She won’t be too happy being on the board of the development and not knowing about secret tunnels.”
That made Mia smile despite everything. She remembered Brian’s grandparents. They’d been good friends of her parents and Uncle William. They’d always been so nice and kind to Mia.
They walked for what felt like several minutes before reaching another door.
Nolan tried to open it, but it didn’t budge.
“Unless you can solve complex cryptographic ciphers,” Lila said, moving forward, “you’re not getting through that door.”
Nolan stepped aside but stayed close, keeping them all covered, his eyes constantly scanning for threats.
Lila examined the lock mechanism, referring to her book, then began working on a series of symbols and numbers.
After a few minutes, there was a click.
The door opened.
They stepped into another basement.
This one was different. Newer. More maintained.
A memory hit Mia hard. “I know this place.”
Her eyes roamed around, and as they did, motion-sensor lights flashed on.
They all jumped as the door behind them shut automatically.
They turned to see Lila resetting the lock.
“Just in case,” she said, turning back to them. “I reset the code.”
“Great job, Lila,” Nolan told her.
Then he glanced around the room, and his eyes met Mia’s.
Despite everything, Mia’s heart fluttered, and her breath caught.
“You say you remember this place?” Nolan asked.
Mia nodded. “I’m not sure why, but it’s important.”
“Because of this?” Lila moved to what looked like a round temperature dial on the wall.
“A temperature dial?” Brian asked, frowning and moving closer.
“You can’t see it’s not an ordinary dial?” Lila looked at them as if they were crazy.
“No,” Mia, Brian, and Nolan chorused.
Lila sighed. She turned and examined the dial carefully, then looked at the book. “It’s not in the book.” She frowned. “In the book, there’s just some secret hidden vault. But David finds it by flipping a switch...” Her eyes widened. “It can’t be that easy.”
She laughed, then clicked the dial a few times. “Click zero to the left, then two, three, four, which is three clicks to the right and...”
A click.
A hiss.
The black wall parted.
Lila swung it open, and they all gasped.
There was a vault. It had a small window and a very complex-looking keypad.
“Does David Dare know how to open that?” Brian asked. Then he astounded them all by rattling off statistics about how many possible combinations there could be.
Another number popped into Mia’s head.
Without thinking, she rattled off her birth month and year, then her mother’s birth month and year, then her father’s.
Lila typed them in.
The vault opened.
“That’s just a letdown,” Lila said, disappointed.
“And kind of lame,” Brian stated. “Everyone knows not to make passwords out of birthdates.”
“They’re old school,” Lila said to Brian, making Nolan and Mia glance at each other in mortification. Mia made a mental note to change all her passwords.
They were about to step in, but Lila stopped them.
“No.” She shook her head firmly. Her hand snaked around the corner and switched on a light inside the vault.
“Don’t.” She pushed them all back. “In the book, the vault looks like this.” She flipped through the pages, and to everyone’s surprise, the cartoon version looked just like the real vault.
She flipped to the next page. “It’s also booby-trapped, and only two people at the most can go in. ”
“I’ll go,” Nolan said immediately.
“I’ll go with you,” Brian offered.
“No!” Lila stopped them again. “I have to go. This entire room is a puzzle. One wrong move and you’re either knocked out or.
..” She glanced toward a cabinet with a sliding door at the end of the vault.
“Everything in what I assume is the safe behind that closet on the far wall gets instantly destroyed.”
“Honey, that’s just in the book,” Mia sighed.
To prove her point, she stepped into the vault.
Something clicked.
Nolan reacted instantly.
Strong arms grabbed her and yanked her backward just as a huge rubber ball swung down from the ceiling. It would have hit her square in the chest if Nolan hadn’t pulled her out of the way.
“You were saying?” Lila looked at her mother.
“Fine,” Mia agreed, shaken and still in Nolan’s arms. She was reluctant to have him let go. “But you’re not going alone. I’m coming with you.”
“No,” Brian said firmly. “I’ll go with Lila. While you don’t think so, video games help us with this sort of thing.”
Nolan looked conflicted, but finally nodded. “Okay, but we’ll be right here. You two be careful.”
“Wait!” Mia said suddenly, grasping her locket and pulling it off. “Lila, take this.”
“Mom!” Lila looked at her with wide eyes. “Why?”
“I...” Mia couldn’t explain it. She just knew Lila needed it. “Just to keep you safe.”
Lila hugged her tightly. “We’ll be fine.”
She slipped the locket over her head and tucked it under her shirt.
“And when you get what’s on the other side...” A deep voice came from behind them.
They all froze.
Turned.
“You!” Mia and Nolan hissed in unison as a man entered, pushing Eve and David into the room.
Preston Langford.
The pleasant guest from the Inn. The man who’d tipped his hat and interrupted Mia and Nolan’s almost-kiss.
“See, I told you we’d find a way into that vault,” Preston said to David, his voice smug.
“Dad...” Mia breathed, her eyes shooting to Eve. “Eve...”
“We’re fine, honey,” David assured her, though his eyes were dark with fury. His gaze moved to Lila. “Lila, let me do it.”
“Uh-uh,” Preston said, waving his gun and shaking his head. “Let them do it.”
“No!” David hissed and was about to lunge at Preston.
“I wouldn’t do that,” another voice came from the stairs.
Calvin marched William, Julie, and Milly down into the basement, a large gun trained on them.
“Your gun,” Calvin told Nolan.
Nolan carefully lifted his weapon, put it on the floor, and kicked it over to Calvin.
“Now that we’re all here,” Preston drawled, his eyes glittering with malice. “Let’s get all the stuff from that safe, shall we?”