Previous chapter: Aira-9's fail-safe trigger was accidentally activated by a Soma radio signal, triggering kill mode before Kaelen managed to calm her with Mira's tapping pattern. However, activating the protocol also served as a beacon—Soma Corp had locked onto the laboratory's position.
“Thirteen seconds!” Nix shouted as he slammed his fingers onto the emergency purge button.
The monitor screens surrounding the laboratory erupted in white light before going dark one by one. The smell of burning cables and ozone stung their noses. Nix yanked the portable memory drive from the main console and thrust it directly into Kaelen's hand.
“What is this?” Kaelen demanded as he slipped the drive into his jacket's inner pocket.
“Pure extraction logs I decrypted before their signal locked onto this place!” Nix yelled over the warning sirens beginning to howl through the ventilation grates. “The logs prove everything! Soma wasn't just taking samples—Mira Vance's name is recorded as ‘Active Source/System Foundation’!”
Kaelen's heart seemed to stop. *Active Source.* It meant Mira's consciousness had never been destroyed; it had been preserved in a state of eternal torment to serve as the anchor for the entire Elysium network.
“They're topside!” Ivo shouted from near the front door.
*BOOOOM!*
Nix's blastproof steel door bulged inward with an ear-splitting metallic boom. Cement dust and electrical sparks billowed into the air. Through the gap in the damaged door, red laser beams sliced through the darkness of the laboratory.
“Aethel-Guard tactical forces!” Ivo shrieked, firing his bolt gun blindly toward the door. The spinning bolts struck the lead soldier's ballistic shield, throwing off sparks but failing to penetrate it.
“Use the cooling drainage line!” Nix ordered. He kicked an old console over, exposing access to a steel bulkhead hatch in the floor. “Move!”
Aira stepped in front of Kaelen instinctively. The lines on her neck glowed bright blue—not because of Soma's coercion protocol anymore, but because she had chosen to stand as a shield.
“Kaelen, get in first!” Aira shouted, her eyes fixed sharply on the door beginning to buckle.
“I'm not leaving anyone behind!” Kaelen shot back, raising the Kinetic-7 pistol with his trembling right hand.
*BANG! BANG!*
The main door collapsed completely. Four tactical soldiers in black steel armor entered in tight formation, followed by two hovering combat drones that immediately flooded the room with blinding spotlights.
“Shoot to disable Subject Aira-9! Kill the rest!” the squad commander ordered from behind his tactical helmet.
A storm of automatic fire swept across the room. Server racks shattered, spitting sparks and shards of glass. Ivo screamed as bullet fragments tore into his left thigh, sending him sprawling beside the bulkhead hatch.
Kaelen returned fire, firing three precise shots that destroyed one drone's optical sensor. The hovering machine went out of control and exploded against the wall, creating a cloud of black smoke that obscured the enemy's view.
Aira moved through the smoke like a deadly shadow. She vaulted over the wrecked worktable and drove her blade-coated fingers into the neck armor of the lead soldier. Before the second soldier could aim his rifle, Aira twisted her enemy's body around to use it as a shield against his allies' own barrage.
“Nix! Get Ivo down!” Kaelen shouted over the roar of gunfire.
Nix crawled across the floor, grabbed Ivo by the collar of his jacket, and dragged the old doctor into the underground hatch. “Vance! Aira! The bulkhead door has an automatic lock! If it isn't sealed from inside right now, they'll throw thermite grenades down the line!”
Kaelen shot the third soldier square through his helmet visor, forcing the remaining troops to fall back briefly behind the door's wreckage.
“Aira, FALL BACK!” Kaelen shouted.
Aira hurled the soldier she was holding at the last remaining drone, then jumped back three meters, landing right beside Kaelen.
They both threw themselves into the floor hatch. Nix immediately pulled the manual lever from inside.
*CLANG!*
The thick steel bulkhead door slammed shut just as the enemy's thermite grenade exploded above them with a heavy boom. The walls of the line shook violently, and searing heat seeped through the gaps in the bulkhead.
Inside the dark, stifling cooling drainage line that reeked of synthetic oil, the four of them panted in the darkness.
Ivo grimaced, suppressing the pain in his bleeding left thigh. Nix leaned against the concrete wall, breathing hard, his face covered in soot. Aira sat beside Kaelen, her fingers slowly retracting her organic blades, leaving behind only a dim blue glow.
Kaelen reached into his pocket and gripped the memory drive containing proof that Mira was still alive within Soma's network. His right hand clenched so tightly it began to hurt.
“This evidence...” Kaelen whispered in the darkness of the tunnel. “It can't die down here with us.”
Aira looked at Kaelen in the dim blue light from her neck. “So what's our next move, Investigator?”
Kaelen raised his head, staring at the dark tunnel ahead as it led deeper into the city's foundations.
“We take this evidence to the top,” Kaelen replied coldly. “To the place where they're hiding my daughter.”