Chapter 12 - The Tides Turn
They scrambled up the slippery stone path, emerging onto the high grassy bluffs north of the lighthouse just as the sun began to dip below the horizon, painting the ocean in shades of deep violet and gold.
Below them, at the lighthouse entrance, Richard and his two surviving guards burst out of the main doors, looking around frantically.
"They're up there!" one of the guards shouted, pointing up at the bluff.
Richard looked up, his face twisted in desperate rage. He realized he was running out of time. The sky was darkening, and his elaborate plan was unraveling minute by minute. He drew his weapon and began sprinting up the steep coastal path toward them.
"Julian, look," Clara said, pointing down the coastal highway in the distance.
Sirens.
Red and blue lights were flashing through the thick forest trees, moving fast down the highway toward Echo Creek. Not just one or two cars, but a full convoy—state police cruisers, federal emergency vehicles, and unmarked black sedans.
"You called them?" Clara asked Julian in surprise.
Julian pulled his smartphone from his pocket—waterlogged and completely dead—and shook his head. "No. My phone drowned."
They looked down at Lily.
The seven-year-old girl pulled a small, neon-pink wristband from her pocket—a GPS tracking watch designed for kids.
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"My aunt put it on me this morning," Lily said innocently. "She said if I ever got lost, I just had to press the red button three times. I pressed it when the bad man was talking to us upstairs."
Evelyn laughed out loud—a rich, triumphant sound that echoed over the cliffs. "Outsmarted by a seven-year-old. God bless modern technology."
