Chapter 57

"Hi, it's 10 pm, and we haven't heard anything? is there any news on my brother?"

"I'm afraid not, but I will keep searching."

"Thanks, Mark."

"You know this will be much easier if I knew how he looks and where you guys are?"

Angela looked over at Nicole, who was asleep. Sharing a room with Nicole was hard; she had dreamt alot and screamed, which woke Angela up. She needed counseling, and her brother was the only person who could comfort her. Claire lay in the dark, searching for a signal. It's impressive that Angela's mom could put all this together without a signal tower. Claire scrolled through photos of her and Jack.

She then stood up and walked to the kitchen, where she saw Angela sitting at the brown table. The radio was standing straight in front of her; she was staring at it.

"Angela, is everything okay."

Angela shook her head, "how is it supposed to be okay if my brother is out in the freezing weather?"

"I am going upstairs."

"You can't, Claire. Remember you tried pushing it open the basement door. It's sealed."

"So, are you telling me your mom never thought of an exit?"

Angela looked at Claire, "what safehouse doesn't have an exit? What if they had to escape?"

"Claire, you have a point. Angela looked around and searched every corner, every wall, but there was no door."

Claire turned around and looked at the unoccupied main bedroom, which was unoccupied, "what is in there?"

"In where? Jack's room?"

Claire nodded, "what if the exit is there."

Angela and Claire walked over to the room, and when opening the room door, it seemed the same as the other rooms. However, the bed wasn't standing straight. As expected, Angela and Claire moved the bed, and to their surprise, a door opened from the ground. It was securely locked with a password.

"This door is like a vault in the bank. Without a code, we won't be able to open it."

Angela tried the six-digit code to be the year she was born, month, and date, the light on the vault flickered twice red, "amount of attempts remaining two," said an artificially intelligent voice.

"Your mom won't use the date and birth of anyone. She will likely use something someone would least expect, something east, but we won't expect that because it's too east."

"How about a name?"

"A name with six letters?"

"It can't be because it's numeric, Angela."

Claire paced back and forth, "it could be the coordinates to this exact location."

"Can't be that. If it were, it would be a long digit." Angela Answered.

Angela then randomly punched the date, month and year her mom passed away, 100922.

And the green light lightened up, flickering green twice. It then made a sound that sounded like unlocking, and the 20cm thick steel door slid open.

"What did you punch in?"

Angela was pale as if she had seen a ghost.

"Angela, are you okay? What did you punch in?"

"Date, month, and the year my mom died."

Claire stood there shocked, "so you are telling me your mom knew when she was going to die?"

Angela nodded, "It seems that way."

"Do you realize what this means?"

The door led down to another room with guns and three black Ferraris. Claire was as surprised as Angela as they climbed into the Ferrari, "There is no way anyone knows their death unless they planned it?"

"What are you saying, Claire?"

"Your mom could still be alive."

"That's impossible. Why would my mom do this to us? Why would she put us through this grief and mystery?"

"Maybe this grieve is what made you who you are?"

"I don't think I get you?"

"Think of it if you knew she was alive, they would know too, and that could have put your lives in danger."

Angela sat still and thought for a moment; Claire had a point, but if her mom was alive, where was she? Who did they bury whose funeral did they attend? All these questions came up. They climbed into the Ferrari, which and armed themselves, "Angela? Are you sure we are doing the right thing? I mean, what if Jack comes and we are not here?"

"He will stay and wait for us. I left a note for him."

"Okay, it's now or never."

Claire had noticed Angela was wearing a black leather jacket and black jeans, with a pair of black leather boots with silver spikes, her hair was braided, and Angela was wearing black gloves.

"You dressed as this car. It suits you, sis, sorry I mean Angela."

Angela smiled, "I can't keep running, and my brother is out there."

The cars were parked in what seemed like a garage, just without a door. The building in which the cars were parked was at least one hundred square meters. As they pulled away, it was bonded by a tunnel with colorful lights and cameras.

"This is beautiful. I could stay here forever."

"I wish I had known about all this earlier. Then I would have moved out long ago."

Claire looked over at Angela. Angela appeared to be this beautiful and confident woman, but she had a dark past that she did not want me to remember.

They reached a steel door. Angela stopped, "how do we get out of here?"

They climbed out, and looked around on the ground, was a horizontal light across the floor.

"This must be the sensor," said Claire as she stepped onto it. Nothing happened.

"She thought out everything to its finest detail." Angela smiled as she climbed back into the car.

"Where are we going? We can't just go back. It doesn't make sense why your mom would block off this tunnel?"

Angela reversed and aligned the car, "What are you doing?" And drove, the car's bumper aligning to the horizontal light, a green light flowered across the horizontal light. It was like it was scanning a QR code at the bottom of the car. The door then slides backward, opening up a way to the freeway. The freeway was the same road Angela used to pass every day. She never recognized the closing because there was another road over that exit, leading and that exit spiraling downwards.

"I've never driven down here before. Any idea where this could lead to?"

Claire removed her phone from her pocket, and all her messages came from her family. Nothing from Jack, Angelas phone had a continuous beeping, "Can you see where we are?"

"Yes, this road leads to a mountain."

"And how do we get off this road?"

"We can't. We must go around the mountain to exit onto a freeway which leads us back into the city."

"How many minutes are we looking at?"

"A hundred and eight minutes, that's three hours, but since there is no traffic up ahead, it goes faster.

"It still feels long."

Angela drove up the mountain and into the city as fast as she could. She did it in two hours and thirty minutes, "shit. I just remembered something?"

"What did you remember?"

"I left the radio at home."

"You did what?"

"I have."

"I heard you the first time. How could you have forgotten about the radio?"

"I'm not sure what went through my mind. I was so fixated on getting out of here that I forgot the radio."

"Well, there is nothing we can do about it now. We must hope Mark doesn't radio till the morning."

"Nicole, wake up."

"Bro, what's wrong with you? It's only 12h48am, and you wake me up already?"

"They are gone, Nicole."

Nicole covered her head with a pillow, "leave me alone."

Marcus stood up, and Nicole sat up, "who is missing or gone?"

Marcus turned around and walked back into the room, "they left everything here."

Nicole stood up, "do you mean Angela and Claire?"

"Yes, they aren't around here."

"They won't just leave. Let's search around."

Marcus saw the note on the table, "Will be back. We are out looking for you, Jack."

"Why would they do this without waking us up."

"I don't know, but we will find out."

Marcus saw the room door of Jack open, "they left through here. The bed is moved. Nicole, get dressed. We are going after them."

"Shouldn't we just wait till they get back?"

"Actually, you are right. Let's give it until morning and see if they show up."

Nicole couldn't sleep. She felt restless, unsafe, and worried about her brother, who had just returned from the hospital.

"We are finally here, Claire. Where do we start?"

"We start by your house. Maybe there should be some clues."

They arrived at the house. It was quiet. Claire and Angela slowly stepped inside; as they looked around, the tables were tilted over, and the windows were broken. Claire looked over at Angela, "I hope they never got to him."

"But what are they looking for? Why did they come to this particular house?"

Claire was not ready to tell her.

"Let's keep searching for clues."