37. Lucas
LUCAS
Evan Minser stood on the roof of the laboratory.
No weapon.
No attempt to hide.
Blood covered one side of his face.
He watched our helicopter descend through the clouds as though he had been waiting for us.
The timer continued on Hawk’s tablet.
13:42.
13:41.
13:40.
Kane had Elena.
He had the original Fate tag.
And somewhere inside the facility waited a portable biological weapon capable of killing Roth’s sister.
“Land on the roof,” I told the pilot.
Adam turned in the front seat.
“No.”
“Minser is there.”
“Which means he wants us there.”
“We don’t have time to approach from the ground.”
“We also don’t know what’s beneath that landing pad.”
Wynn leaned toward the window.
“He’s moving.”
Minser stepped away from the center of the roof.
Then pointed toward the eastern side of the building.
A red light flashed beneath the helicopter pad.
Explosives.
The pilot saw it.
He pulled hard on the controls.
The helicopter banked left just as the roof erupted.
The blast struck us from below.
Metal screamed.
The aircraft rolled sideways.
Wynn’s shoulder slammed into mine.
I wrapped both arms around her and held on as the mountains turned through the window.
Sky.
Rock.
Snow.
Sky again.
The pilot fought the controls.
“Tail rotor damaged!”
“Can you keep us up?” Adam shouted.
“Long enough to put us down!”
Smoke poured past the rear window.
The facility disappeared beneath us as the helicopter dropped behind the mountain.
“Clearing ahead!” Roth yelled.
A narrow section of frozen ground appeared between the trees.
Too small.
Too uneven.
Our only chance.
“Brace!”
I pulled Wynn against my chest.
The helicopter struck the ground hard.
The skids collapsed.
We slid across the ice, tore through a line of small trees, and spun toward a rock wall.
The pilot fought the controls until the damaged aircraft stopped several feet from the stone.
For one second, I heard nothing.
Then Wynn breathed against me.
“I’m okay.”
She lifted her head.
“But I have to tell you, I’m getting pretty darn tired of falling out of the sky.”
I loosened my hold enough to see her face.
Blood ran from a new cut near her eyebrow.
“You’re bleeding.”
“So are you.”
That didn’t matter.
“Can you move?”
“Yes.”
“Lucas.” Adam’s voice came from the front. “We need to get out.”
Smoke drifted through the cabin.
Roth kicked the side door.
It didn’t open.
He struck it again.
Hawk released his restraint and reached for the emergency handle.
The door fell outward.
Cold air rushed inside.
Adam pulled the unconscious pilot from his seat while Roth climbed through the opening.
Hawk followed.
I lifted Wynn.
“I can walk.”
“I know.”
“Then put me down.”
“No.”
I carried her from the disabled helicopter and crossed the frozen ground.
Adam lowered the pilot behind a boulder.
“He’s alive.”
Hawk checked him.
“Broken arm. Possible concussion.”
“We can’t leave him here,” Wynn said.
Adam activated the aircraft’s emergency beacon and sent the coordinates directly to Roth’s tactical team.
“They’ll send a rescue unit.”
“In how long?”
“Sooner if we stop Minser and Kane from activating anything else.”
Roth looked toward the smoke rising from the disabled aircraft.
“We’re nearly three kilometers from the facility.”
Hawk checked the timer.
The blast had damaged his tablet, but the screen still worked.
10:56.
Ten minutes.
We would never reach the laboratory in time.
Wynn looked toward the mountain.
“The tunnel.”
Roth pulled up the plans on his phone.
“The northern entrance is less than half a kilometer from here.”
Minser hadn’t forced us away from the facility.
He had forced us toward the hidden passage.
“He knew where we would land,” I said.
Adam understood.
“He planted the explosives to redirect us.”
“Why?”
My phone rang.
Minser.
I answered.
“You almost killed us.”
“If I wanted you dead, you would be.”
“Where is Kane?”
“Level Four.”
“Where is Elena?”
“With him.”
“The timer has less than eleven minutes.”
“Yes.”
“How do we stop it?”
“Reach Level Nine.”
Wynn moved closer, listening.
“What’s on Level Nine?” she asked.
Minser heard her.
“The reason Kane murdered Dr. Arslan.”
“What reason?”
“Aegis was never only a medical countermeasure.”
“We know it can temporarily shut down Fate.”
“Level Nine contains the permanent failsafe.”
The line crackled.
Behind Minser’s voice, I heard gunfire.
Two shots.
Then silence.
“Are you working with Kane?” I asked.
Minser laughed.
“I was assigned to protect Fate before Kane corrupted everything.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“Kane believed he controlled it.”
“And you let him.”
“For a time.”
“You murdered innocent people.”
“I gave governments the ability to identify wars before they began.”
“You were part of a system that used civilians as leverage.”
“I built a system.”
“You built a market.”
His breathing changed.
Anger.
“General Kane corrupted its purpose.”
“You threatened Geneva.”
“To force every piece of Fate into the open.”
“You were willing to kill everyone inside that bank.”
“The Geneva unit was real,” Minser said. “But its effective range was limited to the building. I knew the vault’s containment system could isolate it.”
“You still risked innocent lives.”
“Yes.”
No apology.
No excuse.
Minser might want Kane stopped, but that didn’t make him a hero.
“The weapon beside Elena?” I asked.
“Real. Fully operational. Kane brought it.”
My grip tightened around the phone.
“Help us stop him.”
“I am.”
“You could have told us about the tunnel.”
“You wouldn’t have trusted me.”
“I still don’t.”
“That doesn’t matter.”
The timer passed ten minutes.
“Level Nine,” Minser said. “The permanent Aegis failsafe requires the encrypted source archive, the original physical key, and both registered custodians.”
“We have the source drive.”
“I know.”
“Kane has the tag.”
“For now.”
“What does that mean?”
Another gunshot sounded.
Closer.
Minser grunted.
“Move, Lucas.”
The call ended.
Adam looked toward me.
“He expects us to trust him.”
“No,” Wynn said. “He expects us to trust that he wants Kane dead.”
“That isn’t the same thing.”
“No,” I answered. “But it might be enough.”
I set Wynn on her feet.
She tested her injured leg.
Pain crossed her face, but she remained standing.
I wanted to tell her to stay with the pilot.
The words never reached my mouth.
She saw them anyway.
“Don’t.”
“You can barely walk.”
“I can reach that tunnel.”
“And after that?”
“I’ll reach Level Nine.”
“You don’t know what’s waiting down there.”
“Neither do you.”
Adam moved toward the trees.
“Argue while we run.”
We followed him.
The snow deepened beneath the branches.
Roth led with the facility plans.
Hawk stayed beside Adam.
I remained with Wynn.
Her pace slowed after the first hundred yards.
Blood spread through the bandage around her thigh.
I slid one arm around her waist.
“I’m fine.”
“You’re lying.”
“I’m moving.”
“Not fast enough.”
Before she could protest, I lifted her again.
She wrapped an arm around my neck.
“This is becoming a habit.”
“One I could live with.”
Her expression softened.
Then she looked toward the timer in Hawk’s hand.
09:03.
“If we don’t stop Kane?—”
“We will.”
“You can’t promise that.”
“No.”
Honesty.
Even now.
“But I can promise I won’t stop.”
The stone storage building appeared through the trees.
Half its roof had collapsed.
Snow covered the broken walls.
Roth crossed the clearing and found the entrance behind an old shelving unit.
A steel hatch lay beneath it.
No electronic lock.
Only a rusted wheel.
He pulled.
It didn’t move.
Adam joined him.
Together, they forced the wheel to turn.
The seal broke.
A dark shaft opened beneath us.
A metal ladder descended into the mountain.
Hawk shone his light down.
“No visible movement.”
Roth went first.
Adam followed.
I looked at Wynn.
“You’re not climbing that ladder.”
“I can climb.”
“You’re injured.”
“So are you.”
“I’m carrying you.”
“Down a vertical ladder?”
“I’ll find a way.”
She touched my cheek.
“Lucas.”
“No.”
“You can’t fight while holding me.”
“I can do a lot of things while holding you.”
“Under any other circumstances, I would enjoy proving that.”
Despite everything, a laugh escaped me.
Small.
Rough.
The first real laugh I had felt in years.
Wynn smiled.
“There you are.”
“Where?”
“The man I married.”
I stared at her.
“You never stopped being him,” she whispered. “You just forgot.”
The timer sounded.
Eight minutes.
The moment vanished.
Wynn grasped the ladder and lowered herself through the opening.
I stayed directly above her.
Every movement caused her pain.
She didn’t complain.
At the bottom, the passage stretched beneath the mountain.
Old electrical cables ran along the walls.
A faded symbol had been painted on the concrete.
A shield containing two intertwined circles.
Aegis.
Hawk checked the plans.
“Level Nine is directly beneath the eastern laboratory.”
“How far?” Adam asked.
“Four hundred meters.”
We moved.
Roth took the lead.
The tunnel narrowed twice, forcing us into a single line.
Water dripped from the ceiling.
Our footsteps echoed through the darkness.
Halfway to the facility, the emergency lights turned on.
Red.
One after another.
A mechanical voice sounded through the tunnel.
“Containment protocol initiated.”
Steel doors began closing behind us.
“Kane knows we’re here,” Hawk said.
“Move!”
We ran.
Wynn stumbled.
I caught her before she hit the ground.
The timer reached six minutes.
A door dropped across the tunnel ahead.
Roth dove beneath it.
Adam followed.
Hawk rolled through.
Wynn and I were still ten feet away.
The opening narrowed.
Five feet.
Four.
Three.
I lifted Wynn and threw her toward Adam.
He caught her beneath the arms and dragged her through.
The steel barrier dropped to my chest.
I hit the ground and slid.
Metal scraped across my vest.
For one second, I stopped moving.
Wynn grabbed my arms.
Adam seized the back of my vest.
Together, they pulled me through as the barrier slammed into the floor.
The passage behind us disappeared.
No retreat.
We reached the end of the tunnel.
A reinforced glass door separated us from Level Nine.
Beyond it stood a laboratory untouched by time.
Computer terminals lined the walls.
A cylindrical chamber occupied the center.
One physical-key slot waited beside an encrypted-drive port.
Two biometric panels flanked the controls.
The permanent Aegis failsafe.
Hawk approached the access panel.
“It requires the source archive, the original tag, and both custodians.”
“We have the drive,” I said.
Wynn touched the pocket beneath my vest.
“And we’re both here.”
Roth looked toward the empty key slot.
“But Kane has the tag.”
A shadow moved inside the laboratory.
Minser emerged from behind the central chamber.
Blood covered his shirt.
One hand pressed against a gunshot wound in his side.
The original Fate tag hung from his fingers.
LET HER GO, OR SHE DIES.
Roth raised his weapon.
“Open the door.”
Minser looked at the timer displayed on the wall.
04:11.
Then at me.
“You took too long.”
“Where did you get the tag?”
“From Kane.”
“Where is he?”
“Level Four.”
“With Elena?”
“Yes.”
“Is she alive?”
“For now.”
“Open the door.”
Minser approached the glass.
“Once Aegis destroys Fate, every file inside its network disappears.”
“That’s the idea.”
“Every record. Every name connected to Meridian.”
“Open the door.”
“Every account.”
Wynn stepped beside me.
“Not every record.”
Minser looked toward her.
“I copied part of the financial archive before I hid the drive.”
His expression changed.
“You don’t have the complete list.”
“No. But I have enough to expose how Meridian operated.”
“Exposure isn’t destruction.”
“It’s a beginning.”
The timer reached three minutes.
Minser placed the original tag against the glass.
“Kane cannot stand trial.”
“That isn’t your decision,” Adam said.
“He owns the people who would prosecute him.”
“Then we expose them too,” Wynn answered.
Minser studied her.
“You still believe truth matters.”
“Yes.”
“It destroyed your marriage.”
“No,” she said. “Lies did that.”
His gaze shifted toward me.
For the first time, I saw uncertainty.
Minser had built Fate because he believed every person could be reduced to pressure and response.
Threaten the right life.
Create the right fear.
Force the desired decision.
Wynn and I had been proof that his system worked.
Until we weren’t.
“Open the door,” I said.
Minser pressed his palm against the interior control.
The lock released.
Roth entered first and aimed directly at him.
“Where is my sister?”
“Level Four.”
“Is she alive?”
“For another two minutes and forty seconds.”
Roth struck Minser across the face.
He fell against the terminal.
Adam grabbed Roth before he could hit him again.
“We need him conscious.”
“I need Elena alive.”
“So do I.”
Hawk took the original tag from Minser and handed it to me.
The metal warmed against my palm.
The system recognized the physical key.
Ghost’s duplicate wafer had served its purpose when Wynn and I activated Aegis from the aircraft.
Only the original could initiate the permanent failsafe.
I removed the encrypted drive from beneath my vest.
Hawk approached the central chamber.
“Wait.”
He examined the controls.
“What?” Adam asked.
“There are three authorization positions.”
The first bore a shield containing two intertwined circles.
Aegis.
The second displayed two circles divided by a straight line.
Fate.
The third showed a sword.
Meridian.
But the printed labels beneath them contradicted the symbols.
The Aegis shield had been marked FATE.
The divided circles had been marked AEGIS.
The sword read MERIDIAN CONTINUITY.
“Kane altered the labels,” Wynn said.
The timer reached two minutes.
“If we select the shield, what happens?” Hawk demanded.
“The Fate network is permanently erased,” Minser answered.
“And the sword?”
“A copy is transmitted to every Meridian site in the world.”
Wynn stared at the controls.
“Kane doesn’t need the source drive.”
“No,” Minser said. “He needs us to activate the wrong command.”
The three authorization positions were physically intact.
But Kane had reversed their written labels to trick anyone operating under pressure.
The facility speakers activated.
Kane’s voice entered the laboratory.
“One minute, fifty seconds.”
A video appeared on the wall.
Elena sat beside the portable biological unit.
Kane stood behind her with a pistol pressed against her head.
Roth surged toward the screen.
Kane smiled.
“Choose carefully.”
The timer continued.
01:43.
01:42.
01:41.
Three controls.
One physical key.
One source drive.
Two custodians.
One chance to end Fate.
And a dying clock between us and Elena.