“I see it.” He was already moving, eyes on the console where Markham had stood a moment ago. The lieutenant commander had vanished through a side hatch before the locks engaged, leaving us with the monster he’d woken.
Miles’s voice crackled over the comm, thin under the noise. “Containment sequence initiated. I’m reading a power buildup in the core. That’s not just a seal—it’s a burn. You’ve got eight minutes before it purges the whole floor.”
“Roger that,” Hawk said. “How do we stop it?”
“You can’t from outside,” Miles said. “You’ll need manual override at the primary server hub—east wall.”
Hawk turned to me. “Cover me.”
He ran, boots hammering on steel. I followed, laying suppressive fire as a drone skittered from the ceiling, its lenses glowing blue. The first shot took it down; the secondmade sure. Smoke and the smell of melted circuitry filled the air.
Hawk reached the hub, pried off a panel, sparks spraying as he ripped through fiber conduits. “Talk to me, Miles.”
“Cut the yellow bundle, re-route the blue—”
“Which blue?”
“The one that’s humming!”
He snorted. “They’re all humming.”
Even with death counting down in seconds, I smiled. It was insane, and it was him—gruff, alive, impossible.
Another drone dropped from the rafters. I shot it midair, casing splitting apart in a burst of light. Hawk didn’t flinch. His hands were steady, eyes narrow.
“Five minutes,” Miles said.
“Working on it,” Hawk muttered. “Julia, if this thing goes, you run.”
“Not happening.”
“Damn it, Julia, that wasn’t a suggestion.”
I caught his arm, yanking him to look at me. “I’m not leaving you in a burning tomb, Hawk.”
He held my stare, jaw tight, eyes flicking between anger and something far more dangerous. “You’re impossible.”
“Good thing you like that about me.”
He didn’t answer, just went back to work—but his shoulders softened for a heartbeat.
Hawk
The circuit bundle finally gave, a cascade of sparks spilling down my sleeve. The lights above flickered, alarms stumbling in their rhythm. For a second I thought it worked—then a new alarm screamed to life, louder, closer.
“Miles?”
“That was a partial bypass. The system’s splitting—two cores. You stopped one; the other’s still climbing. You’ll need a secondary kill switch—north junction.”
Julia was already moving before I said it. “I’ve got it.”
“Julia—no.”
She didn’t stop. Her silhouette sliced through the red haze, determined, brave, and foolish in the way only someone you love can be. I chased after her, firing at another drone that dropped down to intercept. My chest burned, lungs pulling in air that smelled like ozone and heat.
She reached the junction, ripped the casing open, and glanced over her shoulder at me. “How long?”
“Two minutes!”
