Chapter 7 - Face to Face
Vance stood less than three feet from me. His clothes were torn, covered in duct dust and soot, and his eyes were wild with exhaustion and terror. He didn't raise his gun at me; instead, he pointed it toward the reinforced iron door leading to the stairwell, where heavy tactical boots were already pounding down the steps.
"Listen to me!" Vance shouted over the rising din of heavy footsteps and tactical radio chatter outside the door. "Croft won't let those girls leave this building alive! The sequence inside them proves Aethelgard violated federal biological weapons treaties! If my daughters leave this precinct, the company falls!"
I didn't hesitate. I grabbed the micro-vial, snapped off the protective cap, and inserted it into the top port of the auto-injector. The device whirred to life, a small internal pump humming as a tiny needle pierced the stopper, drawing the clear liquid into its primary chamber.
The screen flashed green: SEQUENCE MATCHED. DOSAGE READY.
"Hold the door!" I yelled to Vance, grabbing the auto-injector and rushing into Cell 2 where Olivia lay motionless.
Vance stepped into the doorway of the cell block, opening fire through the iron view slit of the stairwell door as dark-armored corporate contractors began slamming against the heavy barrier with a hydraulic breaching tool.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Muzzle flashes illuminated the dark corridor in blinding strobes of light.
I knelt beside Olivia, pressed the flat end of the auto-injector against her outer thigh, and engaged the manual trigger.
A sharp click echoed in the small cell, followed by the hiss of compressed gas.
Olivia's body tensed instantly. Her back arched off the wooden bench, her fingers locking tightly around my forearm as the counter-agent flooded her bloodstream. For five agonizing seconds, she didn't breathe at all.
"Olivia!" Emma screamed, throwing her arms around her sister.
Then, Olivia gasped—a deep, shuddering breath that filled her lungs completely. The blue tint in her lips dissolved as warm color flooded back into her cheeks. Her eyes fluttered open, focusing on Emma.
"Emma... it stopped burning," she whispered weakly.
Before I could stand, the cell block stairwell door buckled inward with a shower of sparks and shattered steel. Three corporate contractors in black tactical gear and full-face respirators poured into the hallway, weapons raised.
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"Drop your weapons! Down on the floor now!" their lead operator shouted, his weapon mounted laser tracking across Vance's chest.
Vance raised his hands slowly, dropping his empty pistol to the floor. "The sequence is gone," he said, a hollow smile breaking across his dust-streaked face. "It's integrated. You can't recover it without destroying the living hosts."
