Chapter 13 - Countdown to Ash
Total panic erupted in the underground lab. The two mercenaries, realizing their billionaire employer had just doomed them to burn in a chemical fire, scrambled toward the sealed blast doors, completely abandoning their posts. Evelyn fired a warning shot into the ceiling, demanding order, but the automated thermal purge countdown was absolute. Six minutes.
Elias sprinted toward the central console, desperately typing commands to download the surgical map before the servers melted. Evelyn aimed the gun at his back. Before she could pull the trigger, Hope, acting on a surge of adrenaline and repressed rage, rammed her heavy motorized wheelchair directly into Evelyn’s legs. The matriarch cried out, falling hard to the steel floor, the gun clattering away.
I dove for the weapon, kicking it under a server rack and pinning Evelyn against the cold steel of the lab bench. She thrashed wildly, screaming obscenities, fighting with the desperate strength of a cornered predator. Meanwhile, Sophie rolled her chair next to Hope's. Amidst the blaring sirens and the flashing red lights, the two sisters looked at each other. "Are you okay?" Sophie yelled over the alarm. Hope managed a weak, terrified smile. "You're my sister?" "Half-sister," Sophie corrected gently, reaching out to hold her hand. "I think we share the complicated half." The countdown was relentless. Three minutes. We were trapped in a descending inferno.
