Trapped

The doors are titanium. The walls are reinforced concrete. The network is severed. And the air is running out. Liam Vance is an expert archivist who spends his days cataloging the historic assets of the prestigious Vance Trust. He is a man who darkens his world with the logic of the past, but nothing prepares him for the night the sanctuary becomes a tomb. When a sudden, manual system override initiates a maximum security lockdown, Liam finds himself buried three stories beneath the ground in a climate-controlled vault. The communication lines are completely cut, the digital grid is rewritten to show no errors, and the oxygen recirculation system is deliberately halted. Someone from his own family is watching through the live-stream security cameras—waiting for him to suffocate. As the carbon dioxide levels rise and a chemical purge begins, Liam discovers that his trap isn't an automated glitch. It's a calculated execution designed to bury a dark family secret from 1882. To survive, Liam must navigate a labyrinth of digital deception, legacy cold-war analog systems, and a physical countdown where every breath matters. Trapped is a gripping, fast-paced psychological suspense thriller by Muhammad Awais. A masterfully crafted tale of closed spaces, hidden corporate agendas, and survival intuition, this novel explores the terrifying realization that some family histories are written in blood—and some archives are meant to be a grave.