67. Sienna
Sienna
S eventeen.
The number burns across the screen like a death sentence.
For a second, nobody in the room moves.
Nobody breathes.
Then Cal swears viciously.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“I’m not.” My voice comes out hollow. “They’re all active.”
Jonah steps closer behind me, eyes locked on the monitor.
“Can you locate them?”
My fingers fly across the keyboard again.
Code spills down the screen.
Encrypted pathways.
Biometric readings.
Heartbeat monitors.
Signal pathways.
God.
Kade turned human beings into network assets.
My stomach twists so hard I nearly gag.
“There,” Vale says sharply.
I see it too.
Sixteen blinking indicators.
One solid red.
Elizabeth.
The others are scattered throughout the compound.
Different floors.
Different sectors.
Different holding cells.
Cold crashes through me.
“Oh my God…”
“What?” Jonah asks immediately.
I stare at the monitor.
At the age markers beside the bio-signs.
No.
No no no—
“They’re kids.”
Silence detonates through the room.
Cal turns slowly toward the screen.
Lance lowers his rifle a fraction.
Even Vale looks shaken now.
Ages scroll beside the signals.
Fourteen.
Fifteen.
Twelve.
Seventeen.
My chest caves inward.
“Kade…” I whisper.
Elizabeth starts crying softly behind us.
“He said they were important,” she whispers weakly. “Special projects…”
Jonah’s face darkens into something deadly.
“Where are they?”
I pull up the facility map fully.
Hidden sectors begin unfolding across the screen.
Ones I never knew existed.
Even after everything.
Even after all my years inside Oracle.
Dear God.
The compound is bigger than I thought.
Much bigger.
“He buried them underground,” I whisper.
Cal stares at the map.
“That wasn’t on any blueprint.”
“Because it’s hidden behind the medical wing.”
Cal checks the corridor again before turning back sharply.
“How many hostiles are between us and those kids?”
The screen populates.
My blood runs cold.
“A lot.”
Gunfire erupts again outside.
This time close enough bullets punch through the wall beside the terminal.
Jonah yanks me down instantly.
Concrete sprays over us.
“MOVE!” Cal shouts.
Lance unloads through the doorway while Vale drags Elizabeth’s chair farther behind cover.
The room explodes into chaos again.
But my eyes stay locked on the screen.
Because something else just appeared.
A countdown.
00:19:42
Every cell on the screen flashes red.
My pulse stops.
“No…”
Jonah sees it immediately.
“What is that?”
I can barely breathe.
“It’s a synchronized trigger.”
Calwhips around.
“A what?!”
“If the timer reaches zero…” My voice cracks. “Every kill switch activates at once.”
Even the gunfire outside suddenly feels distant.
Nineteen minutes.
Seventeen people.
Including Elizabeth.
And somewhere in this nightmare—
Kade is watching all of us panic exactly the way he wanted.
Jonah grips my arm gently.
“Sienna.”
I look at him.
Steady blue eyes.
Calm in the middle of hell.
“Tell me there’s a way to stop it.”
I want to say yes.
God, I want to.
But before I can answer—
The speakers crackle back to life.
And Elias Kade laughs.
Soft.
Almost affectionate.
“You always were magnificent under pressure.”
Rage slices through me instantly.
“Kade—”
“You have nineteen minutes,” he says calmly. “Save your sister in front of you… or save the others below.”
The room goes still.
No.
“No—”
“One choice, Sienna.”
Jonah’s arm tightens around me immediately.
Kade continues softly—
“You can’t save everyone.”