Chapter 7 - The Light at the Bottom
The descent was a blur of exhaustion and pain. Andrew’s legs felt like lead, his jaw throbbed, and smoke had scorched his throat, but he didn't slow down. Every flight of stairs brought him closer to the bottom, closer to safety, and closer to fulfilling his promise.
When he finally slammed open the ground-floor exit door, he collapsed onto his knees in the lobby.
The space was now filled with the flashing red and blue lights of emergency vehicles parked outside the glass doors. Seattle police officers, firefighters, and medical personnel had breached the main entrance.
Celeste Kane was standing near the center of the lobby, surrounded by officers. She was holding Emma in her arms.
When the door slammed open, Emma turned her head.
"Andrew!" the child called out—her voice clear, distinct, and echoing across the entire lobby.
Celeste gasped, dropping to her knees alongside her daughter as Emma pulled away from her grip and ran across the slick marble floor toward the exhausted janitor.
Andrew caught her as she threw her small arms around his neck, hugging him with a desperate, fierce strength.
"I got it," Andrew whispered, his voice hoarse from smoke. "I got your daddy's box."
He unzipped his heavy canvas jacket and pulled out the leather notebook and the encrypted drives, placing them into Celeste’s hands as she ran up to join them.
Celeste stared down at her husband’s handwriting on the ledger pages. Tears filled her eyes, cascading down her cheeks as she realized the horror of what had happened—and the profound sacrifice the man sitting on her floor had made to save her family.
"Vance is on forty-seven," Andrew rasped out to the police commander who stepped up beside them. "His leg is broken. He confessed to everything. The safety documents... the poison... it's all in those drives."
The police commander immediately turned to his tactical team. "Units 3 and 4, move up the east stairwell! Secure the suspect on forty-seven!"
Celeste wrapped her arm around Andrew’s shoulders, helping him stand up.
"Mr. Cole..." she said, her voice shaking with intense emotion. "I don't even have the words. You risked your life for my daughter... for a man you never knew."
"I didn't do it for the company, Mrs. Kane," Andrew said, wiping a mixture of soot and rainwater from his forehead. "I did it for her. Every child deserves to have someone fight for them."
Emma reached into Andrew’s pocket and pulled out the small blue rabbit. Its ear was frayed, but it was safe. She took Andrew’s hand and pressed the toy into his palm.
"Keep it safe for me?" she asked softly.
Andrew smiled down at her, his eyes warm despite his deep fatigue. "I'll keep it safe until tomorrow."
Paramedics quickly wrapped Andrew in a warm thermal blanket and led him toward an ambulance waiting outside. As he stepped out into the cool rain, the storm was finally beginning to break over the city, revealing the first faint light of dawn over Mount Rainier in the far distance.
Andrew looked at his watch.
It was 5:30 AM.
He pulled out his phone and dialed Betty’s home number.
"Hello?" Betty’s tired voice answered on the second ring.
"Betty... it's Andrew," he said, holding the blanket around his shoulders as a paramedic checked his blood pressure. "Is Leo awake?"
A moment later, a small, sleepy voice came over the line. "Dad?"
Andrew closed his eyes, tears finally slipping past his defenses.
"Hey, buddy," Andrew said gently. "I'm on my way home. I made it before breakfast."
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"Did you clean the whole building?" Leo asked.
"Yeah," Andrew said, looking back up at the towering glass spire of Rainier Crest, shining faintly in the morning light. "The whole building is clean now."
