“We are going to play a game of quiet mouse,” I told them.

“No talking, no crying, just holding hands.”

Lily nodded, her teeth chattering slightly from the cold.

Sophie squeezed her sister’s hand so hard her knuckles turned white.

Above us, a loud metal clang echoed as Nathan pried the intake grate loose.

He set the heavy metal grate down on the top shelf, his hands covered in dark grease.

“I’m in,” he whispered down to me.

His face was pale, sweat beaded on his forehead despite the dropping temperature.

“If they get through before I lock it, you run,” he said.

He pointed toward the heavy iron safe in the back corner of the room.

“Remember the code to the safe,” he said.

“Zero, four, one, two,” I said.

“Yes,” he said. “The release lever for the back panel is inside, on the left.”

He pulled himself up, his shoulders barely fitting through the square opening.

“I love you girls,” he muttered, his voice muffled by the metal duct.

“We love you, Daddy,” Lily whispered back, barely audible.