Adventure of Dallas Fontaine 2

Dallas bursts through the second hatch, revolver up. The back room glares with flame from a metal bin, and papers curl black in a frantic hand. Jackson Temple hits the threshold behind him, taking the hall. The air stinks of ozone, smoke, and scorched ink.

Dallas sees the man clearly now, Eli Mercer, a terrified courier with authority enough to know names he should not. He feeds another folder into the fire, but a loose blueprint skitters free, marked with the same chalk route as the hatch below.

Jackson angles his weapon toward a grated service recess. Beneath the smoke, Dallas spots fresh wire, a detonator lead, and a timer box tucked under canvas. The secondary blast is still live, and the tunnel line runs straight toward the wedding floor above.

Mercer backs toward the tunnel mouth, hands shaking, paper ash on his cuffs. Dallas now has the route, the man, and the bomb in the same frame. One clean move could stop the cover-up and save the hall.

Dallas lunges straight past Mercer, shoulder low, revolver hand snapping down to the timer box. Jackson does not hesitate, he cuts toward the blueprint instead, one hand already reaching for the sheet before it can slide into flame.

Dallas yanks the detonator lead free and twists the wire clear of the box. The timer dies in his grip. The blast line above the hall goes still.

Jackson snatches the blueprint off the floor and stomps out a tongue of fire licking at the edge. Under the smoke, a second chalk mark shows through the paper, pointing deeper into the service spine.

Mercer recoils as Dallas folds the dead timer into his coat pocket. On the back of the box, a handwritten vendor code is exposed, fresh enough to read, tying the charge to a supply order no one has admitted to.

Mercer stumbles toward the mouth of the recess, but the route is no longer his. Dallas has the bomb, Jackson has the blueprint, and the smoke is now pointing to the next man who touched the line.