Chapter 5 - Smoke and Shadows
The smell of acrid smoke began to seep under the heavy wooden door almost immediately, curling in grey plumes along the floor of room 317. Elena coughed, waving her hand to clear the air.
"She's set a fire outside," Elena said, her voice tight with urgency. "We need to find another way out of here. Files and old ledgers won't matter if we suffocate."
Mark didn't panic. His training and his deep knowledge of the estate’s structural quirks kicked in. He swept his phone light across the dark paneling of the back wall. "My grandfather was paranoid about security during the mid-century political unrest. Every secure archive room had a secondary emergency egress."
He pressed his palm against a carved wooden panel near the corner bookshelf. With a satisfying click, a section of the wall popped open, revealing a steep, narrow set of stone steps leading downward into the absolute dark.
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"Down! Go!" Mark urged, coughing as smoke began to pour through the top gaps of the main door.
Elena didn't hesitate. She ducked through the opening and began descending the cool, damp stone steps, her hand sliding along the rough wall. Mark followed closely behind her, pulling the heavy panel shut behind them to cut off the draft feeding the fire outside.
