Read Online Escape (Chronicles of Hart) by Kat Murray - Free Book Online Page A

inches from the ground slowly swaying from front to back in the water.
    “Quickly .” whispered Ethan as he darted for the ladder. He trudged slowly through the rising water. The cascade continued to fall into the room. Soon it would be up to her neck. They needed to escape fast.
    Grace held her position as he made his way up. The water circled higher, making it to her shoulders with little effort. She shuttered against the cold water and the potent smell it gave off while struggling to keep pressure on the stone under her foot. When Ethan had reached the top he hollered down to Grace over the rush of water.
    “Jump on the ladder, it will pull you up.”
    Grace dove for the ladder, anticipating a quick withdrawal upwards. Instead the ladder slowly clicked back up towards the ceiling leaving her splashing for a few moments too long. She tried pulling herself up a peg, slipping, she almost lost her grip on the ladder. As water poured over her head, she started to climb falling against the metal rungs with her wet hands and feet. Grace, climbing at twice the speed of the ladders recoil, reached the top long before it had clicked back into place. The pouring water stopped abruptly as the tile slid back to its place. It looked like it had come from a large pipe situated beneath them within the ceiling.

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
    MUSEUM
     
     
    “Well, you`re the expert, where is the secret door?” Walt asked Steve sarcastically as they reached the stone wall for the second time that day. He held his light up in anticipation of sudden movement, disappointed that the wall seemed quite ordinary. Maybe Hart didn`t know what he was talking about.
    “Find the dial and I’ll show you.” Steve stood back cockily waiting for Walt to get to work.
    Walt held his flashlight up to the wall and after a few moments Steve began to look. Shooting Walt looks over his shoulder that asked why he was always left with the grunt work. He had put his light back in his belt to conserve batteries. Steve looked the wall up and down with the movement of Walt’s flashlight until he saw an anomaly in the stonework sticking out just slightly against the grain of the mortar. A small dial, surrounded by several numbers etched into the stone itself. It would have been hard to see with their light and impossible without one, which meant Grace and her companion had somehow gotten their hands on supplies even after they had frisked the boy down.
    “Here .” Steve quipped as his fingers found the dial. Twisting slowly he paused on the number one with a slow scraping.
    “Now what? Are there magic words?” Walt joked, as they waited for a door to appear. Steve looked disappointed that it hadn’t appeared somewhere in the wall. He pulled out his own flashlight, looking at the surrounding area for any subtle changes that he might have missed. The floor hadn’t sunk in anywhere and the walls still looked the same. Turning back to Walt at the stone wall, he tucked his light back away.
    “That’s all it said,” he mumbled disappointed at the results “three dials, three devices, and a code: one, seven, nine, three, five and two. It should have worked” he looked closely at the dial, tracing the numbers etched into the wall with his finger.
    “Are you sure it’s on the one and not just near it?” asked Walt considering something for a moment while Steve checked the dial “Or maybe the one was for that sinkhole .” he observed, remembering how the floor of the cellar had sunken into a ramp that led them into this trap.
    Steve jiggled the lock a couple of times, turning it to the seven position to test Walt’s theory. He paused, hand hovering, waiting for the lock to do something wonderful. Nothing happened. Frustrated, he smacked the lock knocking it in.
    “Grrr, stupid piece of junk,” he roared into the empty tunnel reaching for the map in his pocket.
    The lock clicked in as he hit it. Then the wall began to rise.
    ***
    “It’s another storage