My earpiece erupted with voices—Ethan shouting orders, Decker confirming Bravo team was moving in, Trent demanding a situation report. But it was Kate’s voice that cut through the noise, calm now, professional, the mission taking precedence over personal concern.
“Breach at Laboratory Section C, northeast quadrant,” she reported. “Multiple hostiles, civilian subjects present. Lazarus on site.” Then, just for me, in a channel only we shared: “Don’t you dare die in there.”
The first security guard drew his weapon. I was faster. The biohacking always made me faster. Two shots, center mass. He dropped. The second guard managed to squeeze off a round that whined past my ear before my return fire put him down. The third was smarter, taking cover behind a monitoring station and calling for backup on his radio.
I moved deeper into the lab, keeping low, using equipment as cover. The researcher had disappeared through a door at the far end, no doubt alerting whoever was in charge. Didn’t matter. The assault had gone from covert to loud, and I didn’t care. I needed to shut this place down now, before that “final synchronization” became permanent for people like Beth.
Through my earpiece, I heard Bravo team confirming they were breaching the main entrance, drawing security away from my position. Good. That would give me time to secure the patients and gather the intel we needed on exactly what they were doing here.
I reached Beth’s bed first, quickly checking her vitals. Stable, but her pupils were dilated, unresponsive to the bright emergency lights flashing overhead. Whatever they’d given her had her locked in some kind of waking dream state. I unstrapped her restraints and gently removed the electrodes from her temples. She didn’t resist, didn’t even seem to notice she was being freed.
“Don’t worry,” I told her, knowing she probably couldn’t hear me. “We’re getting you out of here.”
I moved to the next bed and repeated the process. Then the next. And the next. Seventeen patients in total, all in various states of neural manipulation. None responsive enough to move on their own. Evacuation would be a nightmare.
My earpiece crackled again. “Lazarus, security converging on your position,” Kate warned. “At least eight hostiles, heavily armed.”
Not great odds, especially with seventeen non-ambulatory civilians to protect. But the biohacking in my system was in full surge now, every sense heightened, every muscle primed. I could feel it pushing me toward the edge, the place where control started to slip, where the rage took over.
Not yet. I needed to stay clear a little longer.
I moved to the monitoring stations and quickly scanned the displays. Neural mapping. Consciousness overrides. Behavioral modifications. The same tech they’d used on me, but refined, targeted specifically for mass control rather than combat enhancement. One screen showed a countdown timer: 18:43:27, and ticking down. The synchronization event Trent had mentioned.
“I’m in the primary lab,” I reported, my voice tight as I snapped photos of the data with my tactical camera. “Seventeen subjects, all non-ambulatory. Evidence of direct neuralmanipulation, consciousness suppression, behavioral overrides. They’re refining the tech for mass application.”
“Copy that,” came Ethan’s clipped response. “Hold position. Bravo team is three minutes out.”
A bullet pinged off the metal cabinet beside me. Then another. Security had found me. I ducked behind the monitoring station as a barrage of gunfire tore through the lab, shattering equipment and sending sparks flying. Return fire would put the patients at risk. I needed to draw the attackers away from them.
“Change of plans,” I said into my comm. “Moving to engage hostiles, draw them away from civilian subjects.”
I didn’t wait for Ethan’s response. Couldn’t. The biohacking was reaching critical levels now, my vision sharpening to painful clarity, time seeming to slow around me.
This was the edge.
I’d fought it for two years, tried to control it, contain it, use it only when absolutely necessary. Now I embraced it. Let it take me. Let the rage rise. These people had turned a kindergarten teacher into a puppet, turned an entire town into lab rats.
They deserved whatever was coming for them.
“Kate,” I managed, my voice barely recognizable even to myself as the change took over completely. “Remember your promise.”
Then I was moving, faster than any human, more predator than person, toward the armed men who thought they were hunting me. They had no idea what Innovixus had created. What I had become.
The last thing I heard before the biohacking took full control was Kate’s voice, steady and certain: “I remember. Just come back to me when it’s done.”
Then there was only motion and violence and the perfect, terrible clarity of becoming exactly what Innovixus had designed me to be…
A weapon.
CHAPTER 20
EVELYN
Dutch’s bloodfelt hot and slick between my fingers as I pressed down on his shoulder. The bullet had gone clean through, but that didn’t make the bleeding any less serious. His face had gone pale under his weathered tan, the skin around his eyes tight with pain as he tried to sit up despite my efforts to keep him still.
“Stay down, old man,” I said, putting more weight into my hands. “You’re not going anywhere.”
“Been shot before,” Dutch grumbled. “This ain’t my first rodeo.” He grimaced, then let out a string of curses creative enough to make a sailor blush.
