Transparency by Charles Royce (children's books read aloud txt) 📕

“Figure it out quick.” Josh releases his headset. He turns to Tracy. “Are we sure all three elevators on the Center Tower are out?”

“Two are out, and now the other ones aren’t working anymore, in any of the towers,” Tracy says. “The alarms are still going, but the electricity is iffy at best.”

“The electricity.” Josh thinks of the thousands of people still in the building. He takes a deep breath through his nose. He doesn’t smell gas. “I’m going downstairs.”

“What?” asks Agent Pillsbury. “No, the bomb squad is en route, they should be here any minute. You can’t go down there.”

“Watch me.” Josh turns toward the door.

“I’m coming with you,” Tracy says.

Josh grabs Pillsbury by the shoulders. “Listen. It’s a little glitchy right now, but ArchEngine hasn’t alerted us to any other gas leaks other than the South Tower, and I don’t smell gas in here. I don’t think the box has been fully activated. But if some of those wires got moved and any of those pins came out, we could be looking at gas leaks anywhere in the building, with or without the system’s detection. You asked what you could do to help. Find the breakers, the electrical panels, anything, and shut it off. If something happens and the gas starts leaking—”

“Then the electricity might spark an explosion.”

“Yes. The gas stoves from the restaurants, the broken chandeliers in the lobby, the broken sign from the roof, anything.”

“Got it.” Agent Pillsbury starts looking around the control room. “I’ll find it.”

Josh and Tracy run out the door, down the hallway, to the stairwell entrance to Sublevel One. He swipes his employee security card from his wallet.

C h a p t e r   6 9

SHAWN GRABS THE business card from the vice president, shoves it in his wallet. “Got it. Now go!”

Former vice president Maddox kisses his wife, wraps his arms around her.

“Sir, we need to go,” one of his bodyguards says. “Now.”

“I’m scared,” Mrs. Maddox says to her husband.

“I know, honey, but it’s the safer option. I’d be joining you, believe me, if we all could fit.” He smiles, looks up at the approaching helicopter. “See? They’re almost here.”

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”

The two bodyguards join him as he walks away.

He turns.

She looks at him, nods, blows him a kiss.

“Mr. Connelly, my number.” He points to the card Shawn is holding. “Use it. We’ll see you on the ground.”

“You definitely will, sir.”

The wind grows stronger.

“Thank you!”

“My pleasure, sir!”

Shawn watches them exit through the door, down the stairwell. He turns around. The helicopter rears backwards like a horse. It steadies in the wind, then circles around again.

He takes off his jacket and places it around Mrs. Maddox. They huddle against the rail, watching the lights from the helicopter flickering as it readies for another attempt at landing.

C h a p t e r   7 0

TRACY REACHES THE stair landing first, turns on her phone’s flashlight to complement the struggling lights above her. “It’s a mess down here, be careful.”

The alarm is blaring, the air is filled with dust. Tracy coughs as she helps Josh down the last two steps, the banging of their feet on the black metal adding to the strange hiss coming from somewhere else in the room.

“Wow.” He ducks underneath the bent pipes jutting from the ceiling below and places two hands on the railing. He throws himself over and lands on the floor of Sublevel One. He helps Tracy across.

Josh goes left, sees one of the security guards on the concrete basement underneath what looks like the sign coming through the ceiling.

“Oh my God!” Josh yells. He sees a puddle of blood surrounding the guard’s head. He bends over, checks the pulse in the guard’s neck just to be sure. “Manny’s dead.”

“You don’t wanna see this either, my friend,” he hears Tracy from the other side of the sign. “DonDon never had a chance.”

Josh walks to her side. They both stare at the second guard, who’s on the floor underneath the sharp bottom corner of the “E,” his head almost completely severed. Tracy turns away, buries her head in Josh’s chest.

They hear a creaking noise. The weight of the logo causes the compromised ceiling to give way just a bit, the logo sliding down a few inches in a startling jolt. After a swift duck, Tracy and Josh turn to each other.

The lights go off, but the alarms stay activated.

“Thank you, Agent Pillsbury.” Josh walks around.

“Was that sarcasm?” Tracy shines the flashlight in front of them. The only other light is the miniscule amount of ambient moonlight coming through the hole in the ceiling.

“No, I asked her to kill the lights.” Josh walks around the bottom of the stairs, now covered in cement fragments. He waves away the dust from in front of his face, almost tripping over the two dead federal agents. He continues further, almost bumping into the black box. “Here it is.”

“It looks dead, like it hasn’t been activated.” Tracy is right behind him. “Don’t touch it!”

Josh’s hands are already around the wires. “These wires are weird, like thick and meshy.”

“Thick and meshy? You can’t cut that kind,” Tracy says, “even if we had something to cut them with.”

“Or if we knew cutting the wires wouldn’t set this thing in motion.” Josh checks the other wires. “Maybe we should wait on the bomb squad. Oh, shit.”

“What?” Tracy waves away the dust from her eyes.

“One of the wires is loose.” He follows the wire, the hissing growing louder. “It’s caught on something on the floor.”

“Well, thank God it’s only one of them.” Tracy can see him a little more clearly now. “Don’t pull on it! It might still be connected.”

“I can see it. It’s not connected, it’s just caught.” He pulls gently until the wire comes loose, the pin almost hitting him in his face.

“Well, there goes my second idea.” Tracy grabs the pin, studies it. A metal disc with a broken clip is fused directly to the thick, meshy