28. Lucas #2
“Melissa’s death?” Wynn asked.
Ghost’s face closed.
“February ninth.”
Hawk entered the date.
ACCESS DENIED.
“What about Lucas’s divorce?” Boone asked.
Silence fell.
I looked toward him.
He lifted both hands.
“Minser destroyed their marriage. He might consider it important.”
Wynn’s eyes found mine.
The day our divorce became final.
I remembered every second.
I had been sitting alone inside temporary military quarters when the finalized papers arrived.
No courtroom.
No hearing.
No final goodbye.
Only a court stamp beneath our names proving Wynn was no longer my wife.
“March fourteenth.”
Hawk entered the date.
ACCESS DENIED.
The display flashed.
TWO ATTEMPTS REMAINING.
“Stop guessing,” Adam ordered.
Wynn stared at the photograph tucked inside my vest.
“Our wedding.”
“What?” I asked.
“Minser watched us from the beginning. He photographed our first apartment. He knew when we married.”
“Why would he use that date?” Hawk asked.
“Because that was when Lucas became vulnerable.”
My wedding anniversary.
June eighteenth.
Hawk entered the six-digit date.
The screen paused.
Then turned green.
ACCESS GRANTED.
I didn’t know whether to feel relieved or sick.
Minser had used the happiest day of my life as the password to a weapon.
The control interface opened.
Four temperature readings.
Four pressure gauges.
One dispersal command.
ARMED.
Hawk moved quickly.
“I’m reversing the warming cycle.”
He entered the command.
Nothing happened.
“Why isn’t it responding?” Adam asked.
“Physical override required.”
“Where?”
Hawk pointed beneath the core unit.
A narrow maintenance space separated it from the floor.
Barely large enough for one person to crawl inside.
“I’ll do it,” I said.
“No,” Wynn answered. “You can’t fit.”
“I’ll make myself fit.”
“Your shoulders are too broad.”
“I’ll remove them.”
Wynn almost laughed.
“I’m smaller.”
“You’re injured.”
“So are your apparently removable shoulders.”
The clock reached ten minutes.
Wynn was right.
I hated it.
Hawk handed her a small tool.
“You’ll see two switches. Both must turn simultaneously.”
“What happens if I only turn one?”
“Don’t.”
“Comforting.”
She lowered herself beside the unit.
I caught her wrist.
“Wynn.”
She looked up.
Fear lived in my chest.
Sharp.
Uncontrollable.
“I’m only going beneath the unit.”
“I know.”
“You’ll be able to see me.”
“I know.”
“I’m coming back.”
Those words belonged to me.
The promise I had made and broken too many times.
Now she gave it to me.
I released her.
Slowly.
Wynn crawled beneath the unit.
Hawk lay flat beside the opening.
“Three feet forward. Now left.”
“I see the switches.”
“Wait for my signal.”
I crouched near her feet.
Close enough to pull her out.
Close enough to lie to myself that I could control what happened next.
Hawk entered the reversal command.
“Ready.”
Wynn’s voice came from beneath the unit.
“Ready.”
“Three.”
“Two.”
“One.”
A metallic click sounded.
The hum stopped.
The entire hangar went silent.
Then the lights on the containment units changed from red to green.
The temperature began to fall.
Thirty-six degrees.
Thirty-five.
Thirty-four.
Everyone exhaled.
Wynn started crawling backward.
Then the primary unit made a new sound.
A mechanical lock released.
Hawk’s expression changed.
“What?” I demanded.
“The containment door.”
A red warning filled the control screen.
MANUAL OVERRIDE DETECTED.
FAILSAFE ACTIVATED.
The countdown disappeared.
A new clock appeared.
00:59.
00:58.
00:57.
The sealed compartment began to open.
“Wynn!” I dropped to my knees. “Get out!”
“I’m stuck.”
My blood froze.
“What?”
“My jacket caught on something.”
I reached beneath the unit.
My fingers barely touched her boot.
The containment door opened another inch.
Cold vapor spilled across the floor.
Hawk shouted.
“If the inner seal breaks, we’re all exposed!”
I grabbed Wynn’s ankle.
“Take off the jacket!”
“I can’t reach it!”
The clock showed forty-five seconds.
I lowered myself flat and forced my shoulders beneath the unit.
Metal tore across my back.
Pain meant nothing.
I found Wynn’s hand in the darkness.
“I’ve got you.”
“Lucas, you can’t fit.”
“Watch me.”
I pulled.
Her jacket ripped.
Wynn slid backward into my arms.
I rolled over her as cold vapor poured from the opening.
Hawk reached inside the control panel.
“What are you doing?” Ghost shouted.
“Stopping the failsafe.”
“How?”
“I’m killing the power.”
“You said the batteries would activate.”
“Not if I overload them first.”
“That could ignite the containment unit.”
“It could.”
Boone looked at the clock.
“Do you have an option that doesn’t include could?”
“No.”
“Of course not.”
Twenty seconds.
Hawk tore two wires free.
Sparks exploded from the control panel.
The temperature displays went black.
The containment door stopped.
It remained open less than two inches.
Cold vapor continued leaking around the intact inner seal.
“Did it work?” Adam asked.
Hawk stared at the dark screen.
“I don’t know.”
Ten seconds.
Nine.
Eight.
The clock continued counting down on its independent battery.
Seven.
Six.
I held Wynn beneath me.
Her fingers locked around my vest.
Five.
Four.
Three.
I covered her head.
Two.
One.
The clock reached zero.
Nothing happened.
No fans.
No release.
Silence.
Then Boone whispered, “I think we’re alive.”
Russ looked at him.
“Don’t sound so disappointed.”
“I’m cautiously optimistic.”
Hawk grabbed a portable detector from the emergency equipment and moved it through the vapor.
Everyone waited.
The screen remained green.
“The inner seal held.”
Wynn’s body relaxed beneath mine.
I lowered my forehead to hers.
“You came back.”
“I promised.”
I kissed her.
Not desperate.
Not rushed.
A soft kiss filled with more gratitude than passion.
When I lifted my head, her eyes glistened.
“I could get used to that.”
“So could I.”
Adam walked closer.
“I hate to interrupt.”
I sighed.
“It’s becoming a habit.”
“But we still need to leave.”
Colonel Demir had opened the maintenance hatch.
A tunnel led beneath the runway toward the control tower.
The airfield workers began moving through it.
Ghost knelt beside the disabled servers and their sealed containment modules.
“We can’t leave Fate here.”
“We can’t take biological weapons with us,” Adam said.
“No. But we need the core server.”
Hawk examined the partially open outer compartment.
“We can’t remove it without risking the inner seal.”
“Then it stays,” I said. “We still have the source code and evidence inside Wynn’s safety-deposit box.”
Ghost looked toward me.
“The core server proves what Fate can do.”
“Living matters more than proof.”
Wynn touched my arm.
“We need enough evidence to stop Kane.”
“No evidence is worth dying for.”
Adam nodded.
“Lucas is right. We secure the hangar and send a trusted containment team.”
“Trusted?” Boone asked. “That could take years.”
Colonel Demir spoke from the tunnel entrance.
Ghost translated.
“He has a team.”
“Can we trust them?” Adam asked.
Ghost looked at the bruised colonel.
“He trusted me.”
“That isn’t reassuring,” Russ said.
Demir spoke again.
“He says his wife commands the Turkish biological-response unit.”
Boone smiled.
“I like him.”
“Why?”
“His wife sounds terrifying.”
Wynn looked at me.
“Smart man.”