Chapter 10 - THE BUILDING THAT COULD FALL The Caldwell files triggered emergency inspections across California.
Three towers were evacuated.
A hospital closed an entire wing.
Two schools were temporarily shut down.
Then engineers examined Halcyon Tower.
The structure was dangerously compromised.
I joined the emergency team.
For six days, I barely slept.
Every column felt like a countdown.
Every vibration sounded like a warning.
Then Eleanor sent me a photograph.
It showed me entering the tower.
On the back were seven words:
YOUR FATHER REFUSED. WILL YOU?
That night, a storm hit San Francisco.
Rain hammered the windows.
Wind screamed between the towers.
The sensors began flashing.
Structural movement exceeded safe limits.
“Evacuate!”
People ran.
Then the lights went out.
I heard footsteps behind me.
Adrian.
“I came to warn you.”
“You shouldn't be here.”
“My mother planted charges.”
I froze.
“Where?”
“Inside the mechanical floor.”
We found the first device.
Four minutes.
The tower groaned around us.
I could feel the structure moving through the soles of my shoes.
Adrian helped me stabilize a damaged support.
Three minutes.
Then two.
We reached the stairwell.
Thirty seconds.
The explosion ripped through the mechanical floor.
The tower shook.
Glass exploded outward.
But it remained standing.
Adrian collapsed.
I dragged him away from the debris.
For several seconds, I thought he was dead.
Then his eyes opened.
“Claire.”
“What?”
His voice was barely audible.
“Three charges.”
My blood turned cold.
“We found one.”
He looked at me.
May you like
“I know.”
Then the second explosion detonated.
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