Chapter 22
The silence that followed the slamming of the blast door was deafening, broken only by the low hum of the servers and the heavy breathing of everyone in the room.
I stood up slowly, wiping a streak of blood from my forehead where a piece of flying concrete had cut me.
"Is everyone okay?" I called out, my voice raspy from the smoke.
"We're alright," Collins answered, stepping out from behind the server rack, her face covered in soot.
Claire crawled out from under the desk, her face pale, but Ethan was quiet, looking up with wide, confused eyes.
"He's okay," she whispered, her voice cracking. "Daniel, he's okay."
I let out a breath I didn't realize I was holding, then turned my attention to the center of the room.
General Vance was sitting on the floor, leaning against the main console, clutching his leg.
A stray round had caught him in the thigh. Blood was pooling quickly beneath his wool coat.
James stepped over him, his weapon still raised, looking down at the bleeding old man with zero sympathy.
"Looks like your shadow empire just caught up with you, General," James said coldly.
Vance grimpled in pain, ripping off his grey scarf to fashion a makeshift tourniquet around his leg.
"You think... you think this is over because the door is shut?" Vance panted, his face rapidly turning grey.
"Charles's men brought heavy equipment."
"They have thermite charges."
"They will burn through that blast door in less than an hour."
I walked over to the main console, looking at the single surviving monitor.
The screen was flashing a countdown timer.
NETWORK INTEGRITY THREAT DETECTED. AUTO-DESTRUCT PROTOCOL INITIATED BY EXTERNAL APEX OVERRIDE.
TIME REMAINING: 45:00.
"What is that?" I demanded, pointing at the screen.
Vance looked up, a grim, defeated smile spreading across his bloody lips.
"Charles didn't send his men here to capture the network, Daniel."
"He realized he couldn't bypass your grandfather's genetic lock from the outside."
"So he activated the remote purge."
"He’s going to blow this entire valley to vapor to ensure nobody else can have it."
"The auto-destruct doesn't just wipe the data."
"It triggers the thermal cooling system below the servers."
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"It’s powered by liquid hydrogen."
"When that counter hits zero... this whole mountain becomes a volcano."
