34. Wynn
WYNN
Twenty-nine minutes.
That was how long Geneva had.
Our aircraft needed nearly three hours to reach it.
For the first time since Lucas entered that warehouse, the Brave couldn’t arrive in time.
One video window showed Minser aboard his aircraft.
The other showed his operative inside the bank’s sealed containment chamber.
Blood covered one side of the man’s face.
Behind him, the portable biological unit had begun to open.
Only an inch.
Cold vapor spilled across the floor.
The operative continued tearing apart the pressure-control system.
“Complete the biometric confirmation,” Minser said.
Lucas stepped toward the screen.
“And give you control of Meridian?”
“Yes.”
“How does that save Geneva?”
“I order my man to close the unit and restore the pressure seal.”
“You’re lying.”
“Possibly.”
Lucas’s silver eyes turned cold.
“You’re not getting control of Fate.”
“Then thousands of people die.”
Minser looked toward me.
“Mrs. Spencer understands that responsibility.”
“Yes,” I said. “I do.”
Lucas turned.
“No.”
“I didn’t say I would give it to him.”
Minser’s smile disappeared.
“You don’t have another option.”
The countdown continued.
28:47.
28:46.
28:45.
I looked toward the secure terminal.
Ghost’s one-use wafer remained connected to the Fate interface. Hawk’s cached copy of the first encryption sequence had opened the system far enough to identify Lucas and me.
Now it waited for our biometrics.
FATE CUSTODIANS IDENTIFIED.
LUCAS SPENCER.
WYNN SPENCER.
BIOMETRIC CONFIRMATION REQUIRED.
Minser wanted us to complete the authorization and transfer operational control to him.
But control worked in both directions.
“If the second key can activate Fate,” I said, “it should also be able to stop it.”
Ghost’s weak voice came through the private channel.
“It can.”
Everyone turned toward the radio.
He sounded barely conscious.
“Ghost?”
“I’m here.”
Russ must have reestablished contact from Garrison Eighteen.
Lucas moved closer to the radio.
“Can the duplicate sequence disable the Geneva device?”
“Not by itself.”
“What else do we need?”
“Aegis.”
Leyla’s father had created Aegis as protection against the biological agents connected to Fate.
“What exactly is Aegis?” I asked.
“A defense protocol. Dr. Arslan built it to shut down any active deployment used against civilian populations.”
“How do we activate it?”
“I don’t know.”
The countdown reached twenty-seven minutes.
I remembered Leyla’s face when I said the name.
Aegis wasn’t merely a project to her.
It was her father’s legacy.
I grabbed the radio.
“Contact Leyla.”
Adam transmitted over Colonel Demir’s secure frequency.
Static answered.
Then Leyla’s voice.
“My team is inside the hangar. We stabilized the agent.”
“Dr. Demir, we need the Aegis authorization.”
Silence followed.
“How do you know about that?”
“Your father built a shutdown command into Fate. How do we activate it?”
“You can’t.”
“Why?”
“The command was divided between Fate’s two encryption levels.”
Hawk looked toward the terminal.
“We have both.”
“The original files were taken,” Leyla said.
“Hawk cached the first sequence before Kane’s men confiscated the drive. Ghost gave us a one-use copy of the second.”
Another pause.
Then Leyla’s voice hardened.
“The final authorization is a spoken command.”
“What phrase?”
“My father never told me.”
“Think.”
“I was twelve when he built Aegis. He didn’t discuss his work with me.”
“What did he believe?”
“What?”
“Your father designed a defense against the most dangerous weapon in the world. He would have chosen words he could remember. Something important. Something no one else would understand.”
Leyla went quiet.
The timer continued.
Twenty-six minutes.
Twenty-five.
Then she whispered, “Every life carries tomorrow.”
“What does that mean?”
“He said it whenever I asked why his work mattered.”
Hawk entered the Aegis command path.
A voice-authorization request appeared.
Lucas leaned toward the microphone.
“Every life carries tomorrow.”
The screen flashed red.
AUTHORIZATION DENIED.
My heart sank.
Leyla’s voice came through the radio.
“It requires both registered custodians.”
Lucas looked toward me.
General Kane had registered us deliberately.
Years of surveillance had given him our fingerprints.
Voice recordings.
Retinal images.
Everything he needed.
He had chosen us because he believed he could control Lucas through me.
And me through Lucas.
Hawk connected a portable biometric reader to the terminal.
Lucas and I placed our fingers against the scanner.
The tablet camera mapped our eyes.
Then we leaned toward the microphone together.
“Every life carries tomorrow.”
The terminal paused.
BIOMETRIC VOICE MATCH CONFIRMED.
FINGERPRINTS CONFIRMED.
RETINAL PATTERNS CONFIRMED.
AEGIS AUTHORIZED.
The countdown stopped at:
24:17.
For one heartbeat, nothing happened.
Then the temperature inside the Geneva dispersal unit began to fall.
The outer casing stopped opening.
Slowly, it began to close.
The biological warning changed.
DISPERSAL DISABLED.
BACKUP CONTAINMENT ENGAGED.
Everyone inside the aircraft exhaled.
I closed my eyes.
“We stopped it.”
“Not permanently,” Hawk said.
A second message appeared.
LOCAL MANUAL OVERRIDE AVAILABLE.
Minser’s operative could reactivate the unit from inside the bank.
“How long?” Adam asked.
Hawk checked the system.
“Aegis locked him out for fifteen minutes.”
“And after that?”
“He can attempt another manual override.”
Lucas gripped the back of my chair.
“Can we make the lock permanent?”
“Only by physically separating the unit’s local control module from the dispersal chamber.”
“We’re still almost three hours away.”
Adam moved toward the radio.
“We need someone inside the bank. Someone outside Kane’s command.”
“Swiss authorities?” I asked.
“Kane could have people inside them.”
“Bank security?”
“Minser took their leadership.”
Elise.
She remained inside the hostage alcove with Camille.
Separate from the armed operative.
Protected by its own air supply.
If the internal security controls still worked, they might be able to contain him.
I opened the emergency communication channel.
“Elise?”
Static.
“Elise, can you hear me?”
Nothing.
I tried again.
“Banque Laurent emergency channel. This is Wynn Spencer.”
A weak voice answered.
“Wynn?”
Relief nearly collapsed me.
“Elise.”
“Camille is with me. She’s alive.”
“Are you hurt?”
“We’re both okay.”
“Where is the armed man?”
“Inside the primary chamber. He’s trying to reactivate the dispersal unit.”
“We stopped it temporarily.”
“How long?”
“Fifteen minutes.”
Elise’s breathing changed.
“What do you need?”
“You once told me there was a security corridor behind the vault.”
“Yes.”
“Can you reach it from the hostage alcove?”
“No. But Camille can.”
A second voice came through.
“I’m here.”
Camille.
Young.
Terrified.
Brave.
Elise protested immediately.
“No.”
“Mother, I can fit.”
“What does she need to do?” Lucas asked.
Hawk pulled up the vault’s emergency-service diagram.
A narrow maintenance conduit ran from the hostage alcove toward the security corridor.
At the end waited an emergency-control room.
“If Camille reaches the control room, she can activate the primary-vault lockdown.”
“He’s already trapped inside,” Elise said.
“The backup biological seal may fail if he overrides Aegis,” Hawk explained. “The physical security shutters won’t.”
“How long will they hold?”
“Long enough for us to reach you.”
Lucas crouched beside the terminal.
“Camille, listen to me.”
“I’m listening.”
“The conduit will be dark. Tight. You may hear the operative moving on the other side of the wall. You cannot stop.”
Camille’s breathing shook.
“What if he finds me?”
“He won’t.”
“You don’t know that.”
“No.”
Lucas glanced toward me.
He remembered the promise he had made inside the aircraft.
Honesty.
“You’re right. I don’t. But Wynn will guide you every step.”
Camille whispered, “I trust her.”
I swallowed the emotion in my throat.
“Open the panel beneath the bench.”
Metal scraped over the radio.
“I see it.”
“There should be an emergency-access compartment beside it.”
Elise found the recessed latch and entered her attorney code.
A small door opened.
“The security card is inside,” she said.
“Give it to Camille.”
Elise began to cry.
“Camille…”
“I have to, Mother.”
The girl took the card and entered the conduit.
I guided her through the darkness.
Ten feet.
Then twenty.
Left at the first junction.
Right at the second.
Minser’s voice echoed through the operative’s open radio.
He was shouting orders from his aircraft.
The armed man struck the wall between the primary chamber and the hostage alcove, searching for another way through.
Camille froze.
“He’s close.”
“Keep moving.”
“What if he hears me?”
“He’s angry. Angry men hear themselves before they hear anyone else.”
Lucas looked at me.
A faint smile touched his mouth.
Camille continued.
The Aegis lock showed nine minutes remaining.
Then eight.
She reached the final turn.
“I see a grate.”
“Remove it.”
“I can’t.”
“Push the lower corner.”
“It’s stuck.”
“Kick it.”
The sound echoed.
Once.
Twice.
The grate fell.
An alarm sounded inside the bank.
The pounding in the primary chamber stopped.
The operative had heard.
“Camille,” I whispered. “Move.”
She crawled into the security room.
Footsteps thundered beyond the wall.
He was coming.
“Control panel to your right.”
“I see it.”
“Insert the emergency card.”
Camille pushed the card into the reader.
The door behind her shook.
The operative struck it from the other side.
Once.
Again.
The metal began to bend.
“What code?” Camille cried.
Elise answered.
“Seven-four-one-nine.”
Camille entered it.
The panel turned green.
“Select primary-vault lockdown.”
“There are three buttons!”
“Center!”
She pressed it.
Nothing happened.
“Turn the authorization handle,” Elise shouted.
The operative hit the door again.
A crack appeared along the frame.
Camille grabbed the handle.
“It won’t move!”
“Use both hands!” I shouted.
She pulled.
The handle turned.
Steel shutters slammed through the vault.
One trapped the operative inside the primary chamber.
Another sealed the portable dispersal unit behind a reinforced barrier.
The door beside Camille burst inward.
The operative reached through.
His fingers brushed her jacket.
Then the final shutter dropped between them.
His hand vanished.
Silence followed.
Camille sobbed.
“I did it.”
Elise began crying.
So did I.
“Yes,” I whispered. “You did.”
The terminal updated.
LOCAL CONTROL MODULE ISOLATED.
MANUAL OVERRIDE DISABLED.
The biological weapon was secure.
Minser’s operative was trapped.
Elise and Camille were alive.
Geneva had been saved.
For now.
Minser remained aboard an aircraft heading west, and Kane’s men still possessed the original tag and evidence drive.
Adam looked toward Hawk.
“Arrival time?”
“Two hours and thirty-one minutes.”
Lucas sat beside me.
His arm circled my shoulders.
“You helped save a city from an aircraft.”
“Camille saved it.”
“You gave her the courage.”
“No. She already had that.”
My hands still trembled.
Lucas covered them with his.
“Are you okay?”
“No.”
The old me might have lied.
Not anymore.
“I was terrified.”
“So was I.”
I looked toward him.
“We did it anyway.”
“Yes.”
His forehead touched mine.
“That’s what courage is.”
Before I could answer, the secure radio chimed.
Boone.
His voice sounded weak.
“Kane escaped.”
Adam picked up the handset.
“Status?”
“Civilians are safe. Aras’s family is safe. Samir is stable.”
“Ghost?”
“Alive.”
“And you?”
“Wren is going to kill me.”
Russ spoke somewhere behind him.
“Not if I get there first.”
Relief filled the aircraft.
Then Boone continued.
“Kane left something behind.”
“What?”
“A drive.”
“Accidentally?” Adam asked.
“No. It has Lucas’s name on it.”
Every gaze turned toward Lucas.
His hand tightened around mine.
“What’s on it?” he asked.
“We haven’t opened it.”
“Why not?”
“Because the label says if anyone except Lucas accesses the drive…”
Boone paused.
“What?”
“It releases a copy of Fate’s source code onto the internet.”
The biological weapons were contained.
Minser’s operative was trapped.
The civilians were safe.
But Kane had left us with another threat.
One capable of placing Fate in the hands of every terrorist, dictator, and private army in the world.
Lucas looked toward the black wafer connected to the terminal.
“Keep the drive isolated. Don’t connect it to anything.”
“We’ll deal with it after Geneva.”
Adam studied him.
“What are you planning?”
Lucas’s silver eyes found mine.
“Ending Fate.”