Chapter 76 - The Infiltration of Granite
The stairwell was a concrete silo dropping into the bowels of the mountain, lit only by dim blue floor-level LEDs.
The scientist, whose badge identified him as Dr. Klaus Becker, stumbled down the iron steps, clutching his throat where my rifle barrel had left a dark purple bruise. Ethan walked three paces behind him, his weapon leveled at Becker’s spine, while I took point, clearing each landing with surgical focus.
"The auction," Becker stammered, his boots clattering on the metal steps. "It’s already begun. Lord Finch... he is presenting the live feed to the six syndicate representatives now. If they see the guards missing from the corridor cameras—"
"Ethan already looped the Sublevel 2 cameras for eight minutes," I said coldly. "You have six minutes left to live unless you open that door."
We reached Sublevel 4.
Unlike the industrial brutality of the upper research levels, Sublevel 4 looked like an ultra-modern, high-security pediatric isolation ward. The floor was seamless white linoleum; the walls were paneled with sound-dampening acoustic glass.
At the end of the central hallway stood a double-paned reinforced airlock labeled: *ISOLATION SUITE 402 — SUBJECTS ALPHA & BETA.*
Through the tinted glass, I saw them.
The monitor had not lied.
Leo was lying on his side, his small shoulders rising and falling beneath a thin hospital sheet. Maya lay five feet away, her head turned toward the observation window, clutching her grey stuffed rabbit to her chest. An array of medical monitors sat between them, glowing with green and amber waves—heart rates, cerebral activity, oxygen saturation.
My heart shattered into a million pieces and reformed in the same breath, harder than steel.
"Open it," I commanded.
Becker raised his trembling hands. "I told you! The magnetic seals are controlled from the gallery upstairs! I can enter my override keycard, but it requires a secondary authorization from Lord Finch’s terminal on Sublevel 2!"
Ethan stepped up to the panel, examining the electronic housing beside the reinforced frame. "It's an encrypted magnetic interlock. If I force the housing, the pressure seal locks permanently and vents halon gas into the room to neutralize biological contamination."
"They rigged their room with poison?" The words tasted like bile.
"It’s Victoria's standard architecture," Ethan said grimly. "Scorched earth. If anyone tries a physical breach, the collateral is liquidated automatically."
I stepped up to the glass. Maya’s eyelashes fluttered slightly behind the transparent partition, as if she could feel the phantom touch of her mother's presence. Six months of agony, six months of waking up in an empty house listening to the silence of dead rooms, all condensed into a sheet of reinforced polycarbonate.
I pressed my gloved palm against the cold glass.
*I am here, my darlings,* I thought, my chest heaving with silent, volcanic fury. *Mama is here.*
I turned back to Ethan and Becker.
"How long until the auction concludes?"
Becker swallowed hard. "Twelve minutes. Finch is finalizing the bids. Once the highest offer is verified through the blockchain ledger, the system transfers the authorization keys to the buyer."
"Then we don't have twelve minutes," I said. I pulled two incendiary thermite charges from my tactical rig and handed them to Ethan. "Plant these on the ventilation scrubbers for this entire floor. If anyone comes down that stairwell, turn it into an inferno."
"Claire," Ethan warned, "what are you doing?"
May you like
"I’m going to the auction," I said, checking the magazine of my rifle. "Lord Finch wants to sell my children? Then I am going to buy them back with his blood."
***
