Chapter 13 - Eleven Minutes
“Goodbye, Nomi.”
Daniel’s lips formed the words on the main monitor while the demolition clock continued to fall.
09:47.
Naomi stared at her brother behind the reinforced glass.
“No.”
Her voice barely carried across the command room.
Arthur Whitmore was pinned against the control console by Adrian, blood running from the bullet wound in his hand. Hale had Lucian face-down on the floor. Vanessa stood beside the floodgate controls, soaked by the explosion of water and steam. Eleanor knelt over Celia, pressing both hands against the wound in her side.
Every screen displayed the same warning.
AUTOMATIC DEMOLITION INITIATED.
UPLOAD REQUIRED TO INTERRUPT SYSTEM.
ESTIMATED COMPLETION: 11:00.
They had nine minutes and thirty-eight seconds.
The difference was simple.
Someone inside Daniel’s chamber would die.
Naomi ran toward the command console.
“There must be a way to increase the upload speed.”
Arthur laughed through clenched teeth.
“There isn’t.”
Adrian forced him harder against the metal.
“You should be worried about yourself.”
Arthur turned his head enough to look at his grandson.
“You still don’t understand. If the Dominion dies, the systems connected to it collapse. Shipping contracts fail. Governments lose intelligence. Markets panic.”
“Good.”
“Millions will suffer.”
“Because men like you designed the world to depend on criminals.”
Arthur smiled despite the pain.
“And you believe morality will unload cargo ships?”
Adrian’s expression hardened.
“No. Workers will. The same people you never noticed.”
Naomi searched the control screens.
A network diagram showed four security pathways linking Daniel’s server chamber to the demolition system. Three were red. One remained amber.
Hale dragged Lucian to his feet.
“What does the amber line mean?”
Lucian looked at the display.
“Auxiliary uplink.”
“Can it increase the transmission rate?”
“Possibly.”
Naomi seized his jacket.
“Possibly is not an answer.”
“It was designed for emergency military communications. If activated, it could divide the upload across two channels.”
“Cut the time in half?”
“Not exactly. The data must still be verified.”
“How long?”
Lucian looked at the clock.
“Eight minutes. Perhaps nine.”
They had 09:01.
Hope rose painfully inside Naomi.
“Activate it.”
Lucian shook his head.
“The auxiliary uplink requires authorization from two active council members.”
Hale shoved him toward the console.
“You are one.”
“My credentials were suspended when Arthur reclaimed control.”
Everyone looked at Arthur.
He smiled.
“You need my blood.”
Daniel had sent the same message earlier.
Use Arthur’s blood.
Adrian pulled his grandfather’s wounded hand toward the biometric reader.
Arthur resisted.
“You cannot force the system to recognize an unwilling scan.”
Naomi stepped closer.
“It recognizes blood, not enthusiasm.”
She pressed the barrel of her pistol beneath his chin.
“Open your hand.”
Arthur’s eyes held no fear.
“You will not shoot me while you need me.”
Naomi lowered the gun.
Then she took his injured hand and pressed her thumb directly into the bullet wound.
Arthur screamed.
“Open it,” she said.
His fingers spread instinctively.
Adrian slammed his bloody palm onto the reader.
A blue light passed beneath it.
COUNCIL AUTHORIZATION ONE ACCEPTED.
The screen requested a second authorization.
Hale placed his hand against the scanner.
ACCESS DENIED.
Lucian did the same.
ACCESS DENIED.
Celia remained unconscious.
Eleanor looked down at her.
“Can the scanner recognize her if she is not awake?”
Lucian nodded.
“It should.”
Adrian lifted Celia while Eleanor supported her injured side. They brought her to the console.
Naomi pressed Celia’s hand against the reader.
The scanner turned red.
BIOMETRIC INSTABILITY. AUTHORIZATION FAILED.
“Her pulse is too weak,” Lucian said.
Adrian’s face went white.
“What do we do?”
“Wake her.”
Vanessa knelt beside Celia and opened the medical kit.
“She has lost too much blood.”
Naomi checked the timer.
07:54.
She looked at Hale.
“Can the system restore your credentials?”
“Only through the master console in Daniel’s chamber.”
Daniel heard them through the intercom.
He tapped against the glass.
Naomi read the sequence from memory this time.
LET ME DO IT.
He could authorize Hale from inside.
But activating the system would seal the chamber.
Naomi moved to the biometric door.
“Open it.”
Arthur laughed again.
“It requires a council authorization.”
“We have one.”
“Two to open. Two to activate.”
Naomi turned toward Lucian.
“Who else can qualify?”
“The founding bloodline.”
Everyone looked at Adrian.
He stared back.
“No.”
Arthur smiled.
“Now you understand why you were brought here.”
Adrian’s face changed.
His connection to Celia and Victor Ward made him eligible.
He approached the scanner slowly.
“I am not part of the Dominion.”
“Blood does not care what you believe,” Arthur said.
Adrian pressed his palm to the reader.
For one terrible second, nothing happened.
Then the light turned blue.
FOUNDING LINEAGE CONFIRMED.
The chamber door unlocked.
Naomi ran inside.
Daniel stood unsteadily as the restraints released from his wrists.
She crossed the room and wrapped her arms around him.
For six years, she had imagined this moment.
Sometimes he had been strong and smiling.
Sometimes injured.
Sometimes angry that she had taken so long.
Never had she imagined the smell of smoke in his clothes, the roughness of his beard against her cheek, or the way his body shook when he held her.
“Nomi,” he whispered.
She gripped the back of his shirt.
“You idiot.”
He laughed once, then winced.
“You came.”
“Of course I came.”
“You weren’t supposed to.”
“You knew I would.”
“Yes.”
She pulled back and touched his face.
The scar was real beneath her fingers.
So were the bruises.
So was he.
“You let me believe you were dead.”
Pain entered his eyes.
“I know.”
“You had Hale send proof that I was alive while giving me nothing.”
“I needed you safe.”
“I was not safe. I was alone.”
“I’m sorry.”
The apology did not repair six years.
But there was no time to ask it to.
The timer displayed 06:43.
Daniel turned toward the master terminal.
“We need to activate the release.”
“The auxiliary uplink can finish in eight minutes.”
“Seven minutes and twenty seconds if I disable redundant verification.”
“We have less than seven.”
“I can stop the demolition at eighty percent.”
Naomi looked at him.
“You said the upload must finish.”
“To expose the entire council, yes. But the demolition controls can be isolated earlier.”
“How much earlier?”
“About six minutes.”
The timer showed 06:19.
A chance.
A narrow, brutal chance.
Daniel placed his bleeding finger on the internal scanner.
BIOMETRIC KEY ONE ACCEPTED.
The console requested Naomi.
She pressed her thumb beside his.
BIOMETRIC KEY TWO ACCEPTED.
A final warning appeared.
INITIATING RELEASE WILL SEAL CHAMBER UNTIL COMPLETION.
Naomi looked through the glass.
Hale stood near the console outside.
Adrian held Arthur.
Vanessa and Eleanor supported Celia.
Lucian watched everything with an expression Naomi could not read.
Daniel met her eyes.
“Once we begin, only one person needs to remain at the terminal.”
“We both leave when the demolition is disabled.”
“The chamber will not open until the upload reaches one hundred percent.”
“We break the glass.”
“It is blast-resistant.”
“Hale can override it.”
“No.”
Naomi stared at him.
Daniel’s voice softened.
“The system was designed so no council member could stop it once activated.”
“You designed a coffin.”
“I designed certainty.”
She stepped closer.
“You did not bring me here to die with you.”
“No.”
“Then why require my biometric key?”
“Because I needed someone I trusted to decide whether the release was still worth the cost.”
Naomi looked at the thousands of names appearing on the screen.
Judges bought.
Ports controlled.
Families threatened.
Children transported.
Agents murdered.
Her mother.
Six years of Daniel’s life.
Three hundred people at Whitmore House.
If they stopped now, the Dominion would survive.
Maybe under a new name.
Maybe led by another man.
But it would survive.
Naomi pressed INITIATE.
Steel bolts locked around the chamber door.
UPLOAD STARTED.
The countdown split into two timers.
UPLOAD: 07:19.
DEMOLITION: 05:51.
Daniel began entering commands.
Outside, Arthur stopped smiling.
“You have no idea what you’ve done.”
Eleanor looked at him.
“She has done what none of us had the courage to do.”
Arthur turned toward her.
“You helped build this family.”
“I spent half my life repairing what you broke.”
“You enjoyed the wealth.”
“I did.”
Her honesty silenced him.
“I wore the jewels. I hosted the senators. I ignored questions because answers would have inconvenienced me. That is my shame.”
Adrian looked at her.
Eleanor continued.
“But shame becomes another form of vanity if it does not lead to action.”
She took the revolver from Vanessa.
Then she aimed it at Arthur.
“Tonight, I act.”
The lights flickered.
A warning sounded.
EXTERNAL INTERRUPTION DETECTED.
Daniel’s hands moved faster.
“Someone is trying to sever the auxiliary uplink.”
Naomi looked outside.
Lucian had disappeared.
“Hale!”
Hale turned.
The north door stood open.
Lucian was gone.
Arthur began laughing.
“He knows where the transmitter is.”
Hale ran toward the exit.
Adrian started after him.
“No,” Naomi shouted through the intercom. “Stay with Arthur.”
Vanessa picked up a rifle.
“I’ll go.”
Adrian caught her arm.
“You’ve done enough.”
“Not yet.”
Their eyes met.
Vanessa pulled free and followed Hale into the corridor.
The upload slowed.
07:02.
The demolition timer reached 04:48.
Daniel changed network routes.
“Lucian is shutting down repeaters one by one.”
“Can you stop him?”
“Not from here.”
Naomi looked toward the door.
She could not leave.
Vanessa and Hale were their only chance.
Arthur leaned closer to the glass.
“Your brother will die, Naomi. The data will fail. And all you will have accomplished is proving that idealists are more destructive than tyrants.”
Daniel looked up from the console.
“You always talk too much.”
He entered another command.
Every screen in the room changed.
Live feeds appeared from across the country.
Newsrooms.
Federal offices.
Police departments.
International agencies.
The first portion of Daniel’s evidence had begun transmitting.
Arthur’s confidence finally broke.
“No.”
Daniel smiled.
“You built a network so large that you forgot networks work in both directions.”
Outside, Adrian’s radio crackled.
Vanessa’s voice came through.
“We found Lucian.”
Gunfire followed.
Then silence.
“Vanessa?” Adrian shouted.
No answer.
The upload continued.
DEMOLITION: 03:57.
UPLOAD: 05:43.
Still too slow.
Daniel looked toward Naomi.
“At eighty percent, the demolition system disconnects.”
The upload stood at forty-one.
“We won’t reach it.”
“We might.”
“How?”
“Manual overclock.”
“What does it cost?”
He did not answer.
She grabbed his wrist.
“Daniel.”
“It will overload the server cooling system.”
“And?”
“The chamber temperature will rise.”
“How high?”
“High enough.”
Naomi understood.
They might stop the demolition.
But the heat could kill whoever remained before the doors opened.
“No.”
“Nomi.”
“No.”
“We have three hundred people at the house, everyone in this room, and evidence against thousands of Dominion members.”
“There is another way.”
“There is always another way in stories.”
He smiled sadly.
“Not always in life.”
The radio came alive.
Vanessa’s voice returned, breathless.
“Lucian is down. Hale is restoring the repeater.”
The upload accelerated.
04:12.
Demolition: 03:21.
Daniel calculated quickly.
“Still not enough.”
Naomi looked through the glass.
Celia’s eyes were open.
Weak, but conscious.
She raised one hand toward the council scanner.
A blue light activated.
COUNCIL OVERRIDE AVAILABLE.
Lucian’s credentials had apparently transferred when he became incapacitated.
Celia whispered something to Adrian.
He leaned closer, then looked toward Naomi.
“She says a council override can open the chamber for twelve seconds.”
Hope surged.
“When?”
“At sixty percent.”
The upload reached fifty-three.
Daniel stared at the screen.
“If both of us leave, the upload stops.”
“One stays until eighty.”
Naomi looked at him.
He looked at her.
The argument happened without words.
He intended to remain.
So did she.
The upload reached sixty.
The chamber door released with a thunderous click.
Twelve seconds.
Daniel grabbed Naomi and pushed her toward the opening.
She caught the edge of the console.
“No!”
“Go!”
“I will not lose you again.”
“You never lost me.”
“Six years, Daniel!”
“Then don’t waste the rest of your life dying beside me.”
He shoved her through the doorway.
Naomi landed on the command-room floor.
The steel door began closing.
She lunged back.
Hale appeared and caught her around the waist.
“Let me go!”
Daniel stood behind the glass.
He pressed his palm against it.
Naomi fought Hale with everything she had.
The door sealed.
“Daniel!”
He turned toward the terminal.
UPLOAD: 64%.
DEMOLITION: 02:18.
Naomi pounded both fists against the glass.
“You promised we would decide together!”
Daniel looked at her.
“I lied.”
Despite everything, he smiled.
May you like
The same crooked smile he had used when they were children and he had taken the blame for her broken window.
Then the server temperature began to rise.
