76. Jonah
Jonah
K ade reaches for the terminal—
I catch his wrist midair and slam him backward hard enough the entire console shakes.
Sparks burst across the room.
The monitors flicker violently.
Lance is still firing into the corridor.
Cal shouting positions. I can hear the rest of our team coming.
Hostiles are pushing hard.
Glass exploding.
Everything collapsing at once.
But right now?
Nothing matters except keeping Kade away from that terminal.
He swings at me fast.
Professional.
Trained.
I block the strike and drive my elbow into his ribs.
Hard.
He grunts for the first time tonight.
Good.
The bastard can feel pain after all.
Sienna dives toward the keyboard again.
“Vale!”
“I’m trying!”
Code floods the screen.
ACCESS CONFLICT DETECTED
The countdown flashes brighter.
00:00:58
Less than a minute.
Elizabeth starts crying again behind us.
“No… please…”
Sienna looks toward her instantly.
“Elizabeth, stay with me!”
Kade laughs breathlessly beside me as we struggle.
“You still think this ends with salvation.”
I slam him into the wall again.
“It ends with you dead.”
His smile widens despite the blood running down his face.
“Yes.”
The word hits wrong immediately.
Too eager.
Too ready.
My instincts scream.
Trap.
Again.
Then I see it.
Tiny black device clipped beneath his collar.
My blood turns cold.
“Cal!”
Gunfire erupts behind me.
“What?!”
“He’s wired!”
Everybody freezes for half a second.
Kade uses it instantly.
He drives a knife from somewhere inside his sleeve straight toward my ribs—
I catch his wrist barely in time.
Blade stops inches from my side.
Jesus Christ.
Kade smiles.
Actually smiles.
“Excellent reflexes.”
I headbutt him hard enough blood sprays.
The knife clatters away across the floor.
Cal finally sees the device beneath Kade’s collar.
“Oh, you’ve GOT to be kidding me.”
Lance curses violently.
“SOMEONE TELL ME THAT ISN’T A DEAD MAN SWITCH.”
“It is,” Vale says grimly.
Perfect.
Absolutely perfect.
The countdown drops again.
00:00:41
Sienna’s fingers fly across the terminal.
“No no no…”
“What?” I bark.
“The execution chain split!”
My stomach drops.
“What does that mean?”
Her face drains white.
“Kade triggered manual redundancies.”
Vale looks horrified now too.
“He divided the kill sequence.”
“How many?”
She stares at the monitor.
Then whispers—
“All of them.”
Every child now has their own countdown clock.
Sixteen separate timers. Seventeen, counting Elizabeth.
Seventeen separate executions.
And they’re no longer synchronized.
Lance actually looks sick.
“That’s not possible.”
“It is now,” Sienna whispers.
Kade laughs again through bloody teeth.
“You always underestimated adaptation.”
I hit him again.
Hard enough he crashes sideways into the wall.
Still smiling.
God, he’s insane.
Then suddenly—
Elizabeth screams.
Not fear.
Pain.
Everybody snaps toward her instantly.
Her body jerks violently in the chair.
The monitor beside her spikes red.
WARNING: TETHER INSTABILITY
Sienna rushes toward her immediately.
“Elizabeth!”
“She’s crashing,” Vale says sharply.
“No—”
Elizabeth grabs Sienna’s wrist hard.
Terrified eyes locking onto hers.
And then she whispers the words that stop the room cold.
“There’s another child.”
Silence.
Sienna freezes.
“What?”
Elizabeth struggles to breathe.
“Kade kept one hidden…”
Kade’s smile slowly returns.
Oh no.
No no no—
“She’s not in the system,” Elizabeth whispers weakly. “He kept her separate.”
The countdown clocks keep dropping around us.
00:00:29
Gunfire still raging.
Hostiles still coming.
And now—
There’s an eighteenth child nobody can track.
Kade looks straight at Sienna.
And softly says—
“You never found Lily.”