Chapter Fourteen #2
On the security feed, Nicolai's eyes suddenly snapped toward his cell door. He'd heard something—the approaching rescue team, perhaps. The scientists around him were panicking, gathering data drives and research materials, more concerned with saving their work than their subject.
One of them, braver or stupider than the rest, approached Nicolai with the syringe I'd seen earlier. Without thinking, I sent a surge of power directly to that room's electrical systems. The lights exploded in a shower of sparks, plunging the space into darkness except for the emergency red glow.
The effort cost me. My vision tunneled, black edges closing in until I could barely see the screens. Something warm and wet trickled down from both ears now, joining the blood already soaking the front of my shirt.
"Mishka!" Yuri's voice seemed to come from very far away. "Stop this. Now!"
I ignored him, focusing what little strength I had left on unlocking the final barriers between our team and Nicolai. Security doors clicked open. Elevator overrides disengaged. The path was clear.
"Northeast quadrant secure," I whispered into the comm unit, my voice barely audible. "Primary target located. Extraction team has clear access through Route C."
Through the haze of pain, I watched as Dima's team burst into Nicolai's containment room on the security feed. The scientists scattered like roaches, abandoning their research and their prisoner in favor of self-preservation.
Smart move.
If they'd stayed, I doubt Dima would have shown much restraint after seeing his boss strapped to a table like a lab rat.
"They've reached him," I breathed, relief washing through me in a wave so powerful it nearly knocked me unconscious. "They've got him, Yuri."
The bear shifter's hand squeezed my shoulder, a gesture that might have been gratitude or comfort or both. "You did good, kid."
I tried to smile, but my face wouldn't cooperate. The room was spinning faster now, the control panel blurring before my eyes. I'd pushed too far, used too much of myself. My body was shutting down, system by system.
But it had been worth it. Nicolai was safe.
On the monitor, I watched as Dima's team worked to release Nicolai from his restraints. The big man sat up immediately once freed, his eyes finding the camera again with unerring precision. He knew I was watching, somehow, he knew.
The look in his eyes made my failing heart stutter—gratitude, yes, but something more, something that made the sacrifice worth it a thousand times over.
My body swayed dangerously, and for the first time, I couldn't fight the darkness closing in. Yuri caught me as I slumped forward, his grip surprisingly gentle as he lowered me to the floor.
"Damn it, kid," he muttered, his voice oddly distant. "You stubborn fool."
I wanted to tell him I was fine, that I just needed a minute to recover, but my lips wouldn't form the words.
Instead, I focused on the monitor showing Nicolai—now standing, powerful despite everything they'd done to him, a force of nature barely contained in human form.
Yuri was saying something, urgent and worried, but his voice faded into a dull roar as my senses began to shut down. The last thing I saw before darkness claimed me was Nicolai on the monitor, moving with purpose toward the exit, toward freedom.
Toward me.
I'm not sure how long I drifted in that black void where pain couldn't reach. Seconds? Minutes? Time lost meaning in the emptiness. What pulled me back was Yuri's voice, sharp with alarm and something I'd never heard from him before—fear.
"—need extraction now! Medical emergency!"
I forced my eyes open, vision swimming and unfocused. Yuri knelt beside me, one hand pressed to his comm unit, the other supporting my head. The front of his tactical vest was soaked with my blood.
"Stay with me, kid," he ordered, voice gruff but concerned. "Nicolai will skin me alive if I let you die on my watch."
The thought of Nicolai's anger almost made me smile. He was protective that way—ferociously guarding what he considered his. When had I become something he considered worth protecting?
The memory of our first meeting flashed through my mind—me, desperate and hunted, crashing into his restaurant like a cornered animal. Him, imposing and dangerous, yet offering sanctuary when he could have simply handed me over to my pursuers.
"The team has Nicolai," Yuri reported, checking my pulse with surprising gentleness. "They're headed to the extraction point now."
I tried to nod, but my body refused to cooperate. Everything felt disconnected, like I was floating slightly above myself, tethered by the thinnest of threads.
"Need to finish," I managed to whisper, blood bubbling on my lips with each word. "O'Rourke... data..."
Yuri's expression hardened. "You've done enough. Right now, we need to get you out of here."
I wanted to argue, to explain that if we didn't destroy everything, O'Rourke would just rebuild. That as long as he had research on people like me, no one with abilities would be safe. But I couldn't form the words. My consciousness was fading again, darkness creeping in from the edges.
The last thing I remembered before surrendering to the void was Yuri lifting me in his arms, surprisingly gentle for such a formidable man, and the distant sound of Nicolai's voice through the comm unit—urgent, concerned, commanding.
Calling my name.
I clawed my way back to consciousness, each breath a labor, each heartbeat a painful reminder that I was still alive—barely. The lights throughout the facility continued their erratic dance, responding to my powers even as my grip on them weakened.
Through half-lidded eyes, I could see one of the security monitors still functioning, showing O'Rourke hurriedly gathering data drives and research files, preparing to abandon ship like the rat he was.
"Oh no you don't," I whispered, blood bubbling between my lips with each word.
"Stay down," Yuri ordered, his tone brooking no argument. He was positioned between me and the door, weapon drawn. "Extraction team is three minutes out."
I ignored him, forcing my broken body to cooperate as I dragged myself toward the control console. My legs wouldn't work properly, so I used my arms to pull myself across the floor, leaving a smear of blood in my wake. Each inch felt like a mile, but I refused to stop.
"What are you doing?" Yuri hissed, glancing between me and the corridor outside.
"Finishing the job," I managed, my voice barely audible. I reached up, fingers trembling violently as I grasped the edge of the console and pulled myself into a half-sitting position.
The security feed showed O'Rourke had reached his private elevator, case clutched tightly against his chest. Whatever was in there—research data, experimental results, maybe even samples from people like me—it couldn't leave this facility. I wouldn't let him rebuild his torture chamber elsewhere.
My fingers hovered over the keyboard, shaking so badly I could barely target specific keys. It didn't matter. The keyboard was just a focus point, a physical anchor for my increasingly untethered consciousness. The real connection happened directly between my mind and the building's systems.
"O'Rourke's escaping," I gasped, blood dripping freely onto the console. "With research data."
Yuri cursed under his breath. "Let him go. Nicolai will hunt him down later. Right now, we need to get you out of here."
I shook my head, immediately regretting it as fresh pain lanced through my skull. "If he gets away with that data, he'll just start over somewhere else." I focused my remaining strength, reaching for the deepest levels of the facility's infrastructure. "Need to destroy it all."
The backup generators were my target. O'Rourke's facility had been designed with multiple redundancies, which was why despite my earlier efforts, critical systems were still operational.
The main generators were housed in the lowest sublevel—massive, shielded units that powered everything from security doors to life support.
I closed my eyes, extending my consciousness into the building's electronic nervous system. The connection was weaker now, flickering like a bad television signal, but still there.
I could feel the power flowing through circuits, the steady hum of systems struggling to maintain functionality despite my previous assaults.
With what little strength I had left, I reached for those generators. Not to shut them down—to overload them.
"Target the backup generators," I whispered, blood now flowing freely from my nose, mouth, and ears. My body was shutting down, organ by organ. I was pushing far beyond what any human should survive, but I couldn't stop. Not yet. "When they blow, whole place goes dark. Permanently."
The strain was unbearable. My vision darkened around the edges, tunneling until I could only see the monitor showing O'Rourke. He'd reached his escape route, was punching in the access code for his private elevator. I couldn't let him leave with that data.
The lights throughout the facility flickered ominously as I channeled everything I had left into one final push.
In the surveillance feed, I glimpsed Nicolai and Dima's team making their way toward the extraction point, moving with purpose through dimly lit corridors. They were almost out, almost safe.
Just as I initiated the sequence that would cause a catastrophic overload in the backup generators, the control room door burst open.
I expected Dima or one of our extraction team, but the massive frame filling the doorway belonged to someone else entirely—Marcus "Sparky" Denton, his face twisted into a triumphant grin as he raised a weapon I recognized all too well.
"Well, well," Denton drawled, aiming the specialized gun at me. "Looks like I found the source of our little problem."