The drive south and east to the garage took a little more than an hour. A large perimeter had been set around the property and was heavily guarded. One of Lobo’s team members let them onto the site. He said Lobo was down in the ballroom, where a temporary command post had been set up.
The guys took the stairs to the ballroom floor. FBI agents were documenting the paintings, antiques, and sculptures in the central hall.
“Fuck. Me. This looks like a museum,” Max said.
Kelan nodded. “It’s an underground palace.”
Loco Lobo was talking to a couple of his agents. When he saw them, he came over and shook hands. “Owen send you guys down to help?”
“Sort of,” Kelan said.
“No,” Max snapped.
Kelan gave him a frown. “My girlfriend—” he started, but Lobo interrupted him.
“She deserves a medal.”
“She does. She said there were a couple of young women held here against their will. They were from the Friendship Community.”
“Shit. The Friends are involved in this too?”
“Seems King doesn’t let go of any resource he might put to use later,” Kelan said. “I need to know if you’ve found those girls. And if you haven’t, we have to.”
“Let’s see.” Lobo opened a file on his phone and flipped to a manifest listing the civilian workers who were removed from the site. “Have a look. It’s a short list.”
Kelan scanned the list. He didn’t see the names Fiona had given him. “They’re not there.” He frowned. “This is a huge place, possibly encompassing miles of tunnels. To service guests, cook, clean, and maintain it, they’d need a helluva lot more staff than this.”
“Mind if we go looking for them?” Max asked.
“Help yourself.”
They started to leave, but stopped. “Lobo—have your people documented the secret tunnels?” Kelan asked.
His brows lifted. “Secret tunnels?”
“Yeah. My girlfriend accessed a tunnel from inside her closet. She followed it to the farmhouse. I was removed from the site via that same tunnel, but they tranqed me before I could see much.”
“Shit. How big is this place? I’m coming with you.”
Kelan led the way down to the room where Fiona had been held. Max looked around at the opulence and decadence of the suite. He started to grin, but one look at Kelan made him swallow whatever he was going to say.
They went into the closet. Kelan found the electrical outlet that Fiona had told him about. He pressed it into the wall. The whole front of the jewelry cabinet opened.
“Whoa.” Max was shocked. He shined his light down the long tunnel. “Where does this go?”
“No idea. Fiona said she took mostly right turns when she ended up at the entrance to the farmhouse.”
Lobo radioed in for some additional agents to follow them.
Kelan found a light switch, which he flipped on. Compared to the opulence of the main hall, this looked like a complete afterthought. Exposed wiring was anchored to the top of the tunnel, powering a dim light every ten feet or so.
Two hours later, they returned to the same place they had started. Agents were moving about the space, documenting its layout, which looked to be a wheel and spoke arrangement. How much of the architecture was left over from the original footprint of the silo, and how much had been constructed over the last forty-some years, was as yet unknown.
They found evidence of human occupation—bits of clothing here and there. A shoe. A basket. Some dishes. But they had not found anyone.
“Maybe whoever was kept here against their will took advantage of our being here and got out,” Lobo suggested.
“Maybe. It’s possible. But if they knew the way out and had a support system outside to help them get away, why not take advantage of it before this, when they wanted to leave? Why stay here if they didn’t have to?” Kelan shook his head. “I think they’re still here. Maybe there’s another level.”
“Look, let’s separate and see if we can find any access entry points to other floors,” Max said. “They had them all over at the WKB’s silo complex.”
Kelan took the search quadrant assigned to him. So many of the hallways and tunnels intersected each other. He went down one of the spokes that they hadn’t passed through yet. There was a steel sewer cap in the floor.
Maybe that was one of the chutes Max had mentioned. He knelt and lifted the heavy disc aside. Shining his flashlight down into the dark depths, he couldn’t see much beyond the ladder fused to the wall and that the ground at the bottom looked dry. He put his flashlight in his pocket and slipped into the chute.
Twenty steps down, Kelan dropped that last few feet to the bottom of the shaft. Light shone down from the floor above, but everything in there was absolute darkness. He stayed kneeling on the ground, listening to the sounds around him. There was a dull, rhythmic roar. The engine of a distant ventilation system. He couldn’t hear people, but that didn’t surprise him.
He closed his eyes and spent a moment absorbing the darkness and the silence. Off in the distance, he could hear…the muted sound of dogs barking, a sound that grew, as they seemed to be moving nearer. He held still. His eyes were getting acclimated to the dark and the shadows it hid. He could see the arched opening that led out of the shaft.
The dogs were close. Kelan shut his eyes and calmed his energy, aligning it with theirs. They grew quiet as they approached, moving more slowly. He drew a long breath, then another, staying in a place of silence, using his stillness as a vehicle to reach his ancestors. He called upon them to guide him, to help him harm only his enemies and protect all others.