64. Hannah
Hannah
Gunfire tears through the checkpoint.
Concrete explodes beside the blast doors as Sentinel operatives flood the lower corridor in black tactical armor.
Russ fires first.
Controlled.
Precise.
One operative drops instantly.
Lucas takes another through the shoulder before diving behind reinforced barriers.
Mason’s team spreads wide through the checkpoint, creating crossfire lanes while Gabriel shouts over the chaos:
“Protect the children!”
The children.
Oh God.
Several of them immediately drop to their knees against the wall—
hands behind their heads automatically.
Conditioned compliance during combat.
My stomach twists violently.
“No!” I shout, rushing toward them. “Move away from the doors!”
The youngest girl freezes completely.
Too terrified to think.
Too trained to disobey.
Clay moves instantly beside me, grabbing two children while I pull the little girl into my arms just as bullets hammer the wall behind us.
The checkpoint erupts into screaming metal.
Smoke.
Gunfire.
Flashing white security lights.
The smell of blood and burning concrete.
One of Mason’s operators goes down hard beside the biometric scanners.
Russ drags him behind cover while returning fire one-handed.
“More incoming!”
And there are.
So many more.
They keep pouring from the lower corridors like Ascension has an endless supply of soldiers buried beneath the city.
Gabriel checks the terminal fast.
“They’re trying to seal lower sectors!”
Clay reloads violently beside me.
“Can they?”
“Not if we reach the core first!”
Then we’re running out of time.
Lucas fires toward the corridor intersection.
“LEFT SIDE!”
Two operatives rush through smoke.
Clay drops the first with a brutal chest shot.
The second swings toward me—
—and suddenly instinct takes over again.
I move before thinking.
Pivot.
Disarm.
My elbow slams into his throat hard enough he stumbles backward—
Clay finishes him before he hits the ground.
My breathing goes ragged instantly.
Because again—
it felt automatic.
Natural.
Some part of Ascension still lives inside my body.
Wu’s voice suddenly fills the bunker once more.
“You see?”
Calm.
Satisfied.
“Hannah was always exceptional.”
“No!” I scream toward the ceiling.
“I went to survival camp and my brother taught me everything I know. I knew nothing before that!” I shout at the speakers.
Gunfire echoes around us.
Children crying now.
Operators shouting.
The bunker collapsing deeper into chaos.
But Wu’s voice cuts through all of it.
“You were designed to lead.”
Something cold moves through my chest.
Because for one terrible second—
I remember wanting his approval.
A child desperate for kindness from a monster.
I physically recoil from the memory.
Clay notices instantly.
“Hannah.”
His voice grounds me.
Pulls me back.
Real.
Warm.
Human.
Not Ascension.
Me.
Wu continues calmly:
“You could still help them survive what comes next.”
Gabriel looks up sharply from the terminal.
“What does that mean?”
The facility lights flicker violently.
And suddenly, the bunker shakes.
Hard.
Dust explodes from ceiling vents.
One of the children screams.
Gabriel’s face drains of color as he stares at the terminal.
“No…”
Russ looks over.
“What now?”
Gabriel slowly turns toward us.
“He armed the reactor.”
Silence crashes through the checkpoint.
My blood turns to ice.
Lucas stares at the screen.
“You mean overloaded?”
Gabriel shakes his head once.
Slowly.
“He turned the entire core into a failsafe bomb.”
Oh my God.
Wu’s voice lowers almost gently now.
“If Ascension falls…”
A pause.
“…then no evidence survives with it.”
The truth slams into me instantly.
Not just evidence.
The children.
Us.
Everyone underground.
Clay steps toward the nearest speaker with murder in his eyes.
“How much time?”
Gabriel checks the terminal.
Then looks up.
And the answer nearly stops my heart.
“Thirty minutes.”