Chapter 10 - The Ultimate Choice
Sparks showered from the metal pillars as suppressed rounds chewed into the concrete, sending jagged gray dust into the damp air.
“Suppressing fire!” Prescott roared, shoulder-mounting his rifle and sending a sustained, deafening wall of return fire up toward the catwalk.
A muffled scream echoed from above, followed by the heavy thud of a body crashing down onto the metal grating. But even as one mercenary fell, two more dropped from a side service hatch, fanatically holding their ground to protect the vault entrance.
The countdown timer on the vault door blinked relentlessly: 00:02:15.
Two minutes.
“Elena!” I shouted over the deafening roar of gunfire, keeping my weapon trained on the corridor ahead. “Can you override the purge sequence from the manual terminal on the left pillar?”
Elena didn't hesitate. Bending low beneath the crossfire, she scrambled across the wet floor toward the emergency override panel embedded in the concrete support column. Her fingers flew across the battered mechanical keypad, entering sequence strings from memory.
“The biometric lock is keyed to your DNA, Lawson!” she yelled back, dodging a stray round that starred the concrete inches from her head. “You have to scan your palm on the optical reader while I hold the manual relay open, or the system will trigger a failsafe lockdown!”
I fired three rapid shots down the hallway, neutralizing the remaining Syndicate operators scrambling out from the side rooms, then sprinted across the open space toward the pillar.
The timer flashed: 00:00:45.
Forty-five seconds.
I slammed my palm flat against the cold glass of the optical biometric scanner, feeling the blue laser sweep across my skin.
“Biometric verification confirmed. Master override engaged,” a synthetic female voice echoed coldly through the subterranean chamber.
Suddenly, the red emergency strobe lights flickered, shifted, and turned a steady, calming white. The heavy hydraulic locking bolts on the massive titanium vault door groaned, spun inward, and swung wide open, revealing a glowing blue sanctum filled with rows of cryogenic storage cylinders and a glowing central data terminal.
And right there in the center of the vault, resting on a pedestal beneath a sterile glass dome, was a single, glowing silver vial labeled: Chimera-9 Universal Antidote.
The cure for my children.
I reached out my hand toward the dome, my heart hammering in my chest like a trapped bird, ready to finally end the nightmare.
Then my secure satellite phone buzzed loudly in my tactical vest pocket, vibrating against my ribs with an incoming emergency video call from Dr. Franklin Yates at the estate.
I flipped it open with my free hand, the screen flashing instantly to life.
Dr. Yates’s terrified, sweat-soaked face filled the display, behind him the frantic medical monitors screaming a continuous, piercing alarm.
“Mr. Mercer! You have to listen to me right now!” Yates shouted over the screeching monitors. “The moment the vault opened, the Syndicate’s backup subroutine activated a secondary quarantine protocol! The children’s life-support systems have just been locked onto a direct feedback loop with the vault’s self-destruct charge!”
My breath caught in my throat.
May you like
“What are you saying, Doctor?” I demanded, my voice trembling for the first time in my life.
“If you remove the antidote vial from the pedestal,” Yates sobbed, his eyes wide with absolute horror, “the vault’s explosive charges will detonate instantly, leveling the entire subterranean facility—and sending an EMP pulse that will flatline Jonah and Blythe in three seconds flat.”
