46. Evie
EVIE
Caleb’s hand is locked around my wrist.
The broken floor crumbles beneath his chest.
Below me, darkness swallows pieces of concrete without returning a sound.
Victor raises his rifle behind Caleb.
“Let her go.”
Caleb doesn’t look back.
His fingers tighten around mine.
“No.”
Victor’s weapon settles against his shoulder.
“You cannot save everyone.”
Caleb’s eyes meet mine.
Pain cuts across his face. His wounded side is pressed against the fractured edge, and my weight is dragging him closer to the opening.
“Caleb.”
“I have you.”
The certainty in his voice holds me more securely than his hand.
Victor’s finger moves toward the trigger.
A shot fills the control room.
Victor’s rifle spins away.
Rook stands behind an overturned server rack, blood running from his shoulder.
“Get her up!”
Caleb braces one knee against the broken floor and pulls.
I kick against the exposed concrete.
The edge cuts through my pants and tears the skin beneath, but I keep climbing.
Caleb catches my vest with his other hand and drags me onto solid ground.
The instant I’m safe, he rolls over me.
Victor fires his pistol.
The bullet strikes Caleb’s armor.
The impact jerks his body against mine.
“Caleb!”
“I’m fine.”
He isn’t.
But he raises his sidearm and fires back.
Victor retreats behind the damaged command-room door while three Inner Guard operators cover him.
Rook and Shark return fire.
Cobra throws smoke between us and the doorway.
“Time to leave!”
Fathom seals the stolen drives inside the evidence case.
“The transfer is stopped. We have everything I could save.”
“How much escaped?” I ask.
“Less than two percent.”
Enough for some First Circle members to disappear.
Not enough for the organization to survive untouched.
The floor shifts again.
A server rack tips into the chasm.
Its lights vanish beneath us.
Mac points toward a section of concrete exposed by the collapse.
“Emergency construction shaft.”
Cold air rushes through the opening.
The scent reaches me.
Rain.
Pine.
Outside.
“Does it lead to the surface?” Rook asks.
“It was supposed to.”
“That isn’t an answer,” Cobra says.
“It’s the only route we have.”
The demolition timer reaches thirty seconds.
Rook presses one hand against his bleeding shoulder.
“Move!”
Maverick, Rogue, and Reef take the lead.
Falcon and Shark protect the evidence case with Fathom.
Cobra follows.
Mac starts toward the tunnel but stops when he sees Victor watching through the smoke.
Victor’s gaze rests on him.
“You belong to the Circle.”
Mac shakes his head.
“No.”
“You are the Executive Successor.”
“I resign.”
“You cannot.”
“I just did.”
Victor’s face becomes empty.
Whatever remained between them disappears.
He raises his pistol toward Mac.
Rook shoves Mac aside.
The shot strikes Rook’s wounded shoulder.
He hits the ground.
“Rook!”
Mac drops beside him.
Caleb and Shark force Victor back with controlled fire.
I kneel beside Rook and press both hands over the wound.
Blood pushes between my fingers.
“Through-and-through,” I say. “No arterial spray.”
Rook’s jaw clenches. “Then stop fussing.”
I almost laugh.
“I understand why you and Caleb get along.”
The mountain convulses.
The timer reaches zero.
Nothing explodes.
For one heartbeat, the bunker becomes perfectly still.
Then the far side of the control-room floor drops six inches.
Mac’s face goes white.
“The charges weren’t designed to blow the mountain apart.”
“What were they designed to do?” I ask.
“To remove the bunker’s structural supports.”
A low roar rises beneath us.
The entire complex is folding into the hollow spaces below it.
The Chairman didn’t build a self-destruct.
He built a tomb.
Caleb pulls Rook to his feet.
Mac takes his other side.
Together, they carry him toward the construction shaft.
Behind us, Victor steps through the smoke.
The floor is collapsing between us.
He comes anyway.