Page 95 of Dark Shaman: The Lost Treasure
The wall answered before he could finish. A crack appeared in the concrete, no wider than a hair at first, but Nabin could hear it growing. The sound was obscene—like bones breaking in slow motion.
"Back away," Nabin ordered, pulling Hassan to his feet.
They'd made it three steps when the crack exploded.
The concrete didn't just fail—it disintegrated. A section the size of a door blew inward with the force of a cannon blast. Behind it came the water.
Not a trickle. Not a stream. A geyser.
The pressure behind it was monstrous, turning the water into a battering ram that slammed into the opposite wall with enough force to crack those panels too. The roar was deafening, drowning out Hassan's scream and the sudden shriek of alarms as the spray hit the electrical panels.
Sparks flew in cascading showers as panel after panel shorted out. The acrid smell of burning insulation mixed with the mineral tang of the incoming water. Emergency klaxons begantheir piercing wail, but Nabin could barely hear them over the thunder of the inrushing flood.
He grabbed his walkie-talkie, backing toward the stairs as water spread across the floor with terrifying speed. "All stations, all stations! This is Nabin. Code Red. I repeat, Code Red. Catastrophic breach in Level Eight. Initiate immediate evacuation. Everyone needs to get out."
Static answered him. The water had already claimed the main communications panel.
Hassan stood frozen, watching the water rise. In seconds, it had gone from ankle-deep to knee-deep, the current strong enough to stagger him.
"The pumps!" Hassan shouted, pointing to the control station. "We have to engage the emergency pumps!"
They waded through the rising flood, fighting against the current. The pump controls were on the western wall, still dry but not for long. Nabin's fingers flew over the switches, engaging pump after pump. The massive machines roared to life, their intake valves opening to gulp down the incoming water.
For a moment, he dared to hope. The pumps were rated for thousands of gallons per minute. Maybe they could handle?—
Another section of wall gave way. Then another.
The eastern wall was failing in sequence, each breach larger than the last. The water wasn't coming in streams now but in solid columns, hammering into equipment and structures with devastating force. A maintenance cart got caught in the flow and slammed into a support column hard enough to leave a dent.
"It's not going to work!" Hassan had to scream to be heard. "The pumps can't keep up!"
Nabin didn't need an engineering degree to realize that. The water was rising faster than the pumps could eliminate it. Already it was waist-deep, the current strong enough that he had to brace himself against the control panel to stay upright.
His walkie-talkie crackled. Through the static, he heard a familiar voice—one of Navuh's security detail.
"Control room, report. What's your status?"
Nabin pressed the talk button. "This is Nabin. Level Eight is compromised. Catastrophic water breach. We need immediate evacuation of all levels. The pumps can't handle the intake rate."
"Stand by."
Stand by? They were drowning, and the man said stand by?
The lights chose that moment to fail. The main panels had finally succumbed to the water, plunging them into absolute darkness for a heartbeat before the emergency lighting kicked in. Red lights bathed everything in an infernal glow, making the rising water look like blood.
"We need to get out of here," Hassan said, already wading toward the stairs.
There were people on Level Seven, including his own wife. He grabbed the emergency phone, a hardwired line that should still work.
Dead.
The walkie-talkie crackled again. A different voice now, one that made Nabin's blood run cold despite the crisis.
"This is Lord Navuh. Report."
Even over the roar of water and failing machinery, the lord's voice carried absolute authority. Nabin pressed the talk button, choosing his words carefully.
"My lord, Level Eight has suffered multiple catastrophic breaches. Water is entering faster than our pumps can evacuate. At the current intake rate, Level Seven will be flooded within minutes. We need to get everyone out."
