42. Evie
EVIE
The service corridor is barely six feet wide.
Exposed pipes crowd the ceiling, and crimson emergency lights make the concrete walls appear to pulse around us.
Mac leads.
Rook follows him.
Caleb stays close enough that his arm brushes mine every few steps.
Behind us, Cobra and Shark exchange fire with Victor’s men while Falcon protects Fathom and the evidence pack.
The pack contains enough secrets to destroy governments.
Fathom looks as though it contains enough weight to destroy his spine.
“You would think secret organizations could use lighter drives.”
Falcon laughs. “We’ll complain to management.”
Gunfire echoes behind us.
Victor is following.
Mac glances over his shoulder. “The control room is two hundred yards ahead.”
“Security?” Rook asks.
Mac hesitates.
“Yes.”
“How much?”
“I haven’t been here in twenty years.”
“That isn’t an answer,” Cobra says.
“It’s the only one I have.”
We reach an intersection.
Mac turns left.
Steel doors slam shut ahead of us.
The impact shakes the corridor.
“Oh, come on,” Falcon mutters.
A mechanical announcement fills the bunker.
“Unauthorized movement detected.”
“Containment protocol initiated.”
Steel panels slide open along both walls.
Automatic weapon systems emerge.
Laser sights sweep across our bodies.
Mac’s face loses its color.
“They aren’t trapping us.”
Rook sees it. “They’re funneling us into a kill zone.”
The first turret rotates.
“Move!”
Gunfire consumes the corridor.
Caleb covers my body with his as we run.
Bullets strike the concrete behind us, filling the passage with dust and fragments.
Shark dives behind a support column.
“Cobra!”
“I see them.”
Cobra throws a smoke canister.
The lasers vanish inside the gray cloud, but the weapons continue firing in programmed patterns.
Fathom raises his tablet.
“They’re tracking movement through pressure sensors.”
“Can you disable them?” I ask.
“Not while running.”
Caleb watches the firing sequence.
Three bursts.
A pause.
Two bursts.
A longer pause.
“After the second pair,” he says.
I listen.
Three bursts shake the hallway.
Then two.
“Now!”
We sprint through the gap.
A bullet strikes Caleb’s armor.
The impact spins him against the wall.
I catch his arm.
“Caleb.”
“Still breathing.”
“Keep it that way.”
Pain tightens his face.
He tries to hide it.
He fails.
Another burst of fire begins behind us.
Then an explosion strikes the sealed door ahead.
The steel bulges inward.
Once.
Twice.
A shaped charge tears through the hinges.
The door collapses into the corridor.
Three armed figures enter through the smoke.
Maverick takes down the nearest turret.
Rogue fires into the second weapon’s control housing.
Reef throws a flashbang through an open firing panel.
White light fills the wall cavity.
Every remaining turret goes silent.
Maverick grins beneath his helmet.
“Took you long enough.”
Falcon laughs. “I was about to say the same thing.”
The reunion lasts two seconds.
The mountain shakes.
This impact is deeper than the gunfire.
A crack races across the ceiling.
Mac looks up.
“No.”
I catch his arm. “What?”
A new warning appears on Fathom’s tablet.
FACILITY DEMOLITION SEQUENCE INITIATED.
Ten minutes.
Rogue stares at the timer. “Can you stop it?”
“Not from here,” Fathom answers.
Mac looks toward the control room.
“The demolition system is independent of the purge. Victor must have activated it from the vault.”
The countdown begins.
Nine minutes, fifty-two seconds.
We stopped the evidence from being erased.
Now the First Circle intends to bury it with us.