Chapter 54 - The Chamber of Chaos
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The EMP wave ripped through the subterranean chamber. In an instant, the lights completely failed, plunging the room into absolute darkness. The guards’ pulse rifles sparked and died, their advanced magnetic coils fried by the electromagnetic surge.
Panic erupted. The synthesized voices of the Council turned into very real, terrified human screams as the darkness consumed them.
"Go!" Ben yelled, clicking the activator switch on his chest rig. A small red LED light pierced the darkness—a dead-man's switch. If his heart stopped, or if he released the trigger, the C4 would level the entire chamber.
I drew my ceramic knife from my thigh, moving with lethal, rehearsed precision in the pitch black. A guard lunged blindly toward the sound of my voice. I sidestepped, slashing upward, feeling the blade find the gap in his armor. He dropped with a gargled cry.
"Stay back!" Ben roared in the darkness. "I have enough high-explosives on my chest to collapse the glass pyramid right on top of us! Nobody moves, or we all die!"
The frantic shuffling of the guards halted. The threat of total annihilation held them frozen in the dark.
"You are insane, Lydia!" one of the Council members shouted, their real voice trembling with fear.
"I am a mother," I corrected coldly, grabbing the nearest Council member by the collar of their expensive suit and pressing the ceramic blade hard against their throat. "And you made a fatal mistake thinking I would ever bargain with my daughter's life."
"You can't escape!" another voice hissed from across the table. "Even with the EMP, the blast doors are sealed mechanically! You are trapped down here with us!"
"I didn't come here to escape," I whispered into the ear of the hostage I was holding. "I came here to bury you."
Suddenly, the emergency backup generators kicked in. Dim, red emergency lights bathed the chamber in a hellish glow.
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The guards immediately raised their secondary weapons—standard steel combat knives and batons. We were surrounded by twenty elite killers, and the only thing keeping them back was Ben's thumb on the detonator.
Then, the heavy steel doors at the far end of the chamber began to grind open.
