Page 49 of An Epic Voyage
“I take it you didn’t find anyone else?”
“No, just us suckers.”He grabbed the handle of the cart and said, “Follow me.”
Indy did, and they came to a dead end.Griffin moved a sconce, and the wall slid aside to reveal what appeared to be a storage room.He gestured for her to go first.
“This is it?”Frankly, she was underwhelmed.
“Nope.”
She glanced behind her as the wall closed them in.He found another secret latch, and a panel moved aside to reveal elevator doors.Griffin stabbed the button, and the doors swished open.Once they were loaded inside, it descended and came to a stop.
“We’re not entering the bowels of Hades, are we?”
Griffin chuckled.“I have no idea.I’ve never been down here before.”
“Seriously?How did you know about it?”
“It’s my job.”
They stepped out, and Indy scanned the empty space.All she could see was concrete everywhere.She started to say something, but Griffin opened a light switch and pulled out a keypad.He entered a code, and a section of the concrete wall slicked open.
“Good grief.Paranoid much?”
“You should see the panic room in his Los Angeles mansion.”
She could only imagine.
In front of them was a steel door with no handle.“Now what?”
The wall they just passed through closed, revealing another light switch.Griffin opened it the same way as the other, tapped in the code, and rolled his eyes.“Van Houten is so predictable.The code on each one is his birthday.”
The final door opened with a whoosh, signifying it was vacuum-sealed.
“Are we going to be able to get out of here, or will this be our tomb?”
Griffin shook his head.“Honestly?I have no clue.”
Indy stepped inside and almost gasped.This was not like any panic room she’d ever been in.It was lavish, featuring leather furniture, a gigantic television on the wall, a fully stocked bar and kitchen, a king-sized bed, and an en-suite bathroom.“This is a safe room?”
“It is for a billionaire.He spares no expense.There’s even a generator and a backup if we lose power.”
#
If Griffin had to getcaught in a hurricane, being stranded with a beautiful woman he was intensely attracted to was pretty much the ideal scenario—if he trusted her, that is.Doubt crept into his head as to why she would roam the grounds with a storm barreling down on them.He’d discussed the weather with her and specifically instructed her to stay close and listen for the alarms.She knew there was a good possibility they might need to leave.What was she doing on the north shore of the island?What was she looking for?
He intended to find out.
Then there was the incident the other night when she had asked if the boat was bugged.That wasn’t a question the average person would consider.He’d been suspicious but had accepted her explanation that she was a crime show junkie.Now, it made him wonder.
Griffin picked up the remote and found a weather channel.He winced at the size of the storm swirling through the Atlantic as it picked up strength.It’d grown exponentially.
Indigo walked up beside him and whistled.“That’s going to leave a mark.”
“It’s a whopper.”
“Do you think Van Houten and the others will make it back to Miami?”
“With the head start, I would say so.They’ll be running full throttle.”
