48 Hours To Midnight

She climbed down without hesitation. Jack followed, landing badly on his injured shoulder. Pain shot through him, but he kept his pistol raised toward the chamber.

The restraints struck the platform behind him.

Maya pointed along the passage. “Maintenance access. Two doors ahead.”

Jack looked back at Sofia. “Can you run?”

She flexed her injured wrist. “Can you?”

“Answer the question.”

“Yes.”

The shaft opened into a corridor barely wide enough for two people. Pipes crowded the ceiling. Water dripped from a joint and struck the metal floor in a steady rhythm beneath the alarms. Along the right wall, narrow maintenance doors sat behind yellow hazard stripes, each marked with a faded service number.

A heavy vibration rolled through the floor.

The Null Ledger was moving somewhere below them.

Jack checked the burner phone.

00:21:36.

Less than twenty-two minutes before the device reached the Transit Vault. Midnight was coming whether they were ready or not.

“Where’s Maya?” Sofia asked.

“Behind us.”

“Then we need to get back to her.”

“We need an exit first.”

They ran.

Sofia moved with a slight limp but did not slow. Jack kept one hand against the wall to guide himself through the flashing red light, the other gripping his pistol. Behind them, the shaft filled with metallic impacts as the restraints reached the platform.

A door ahead opened three inches.

Jack stopped.

The gap widened.

Maya emerged from the darkness, pistol raised. “I thought you were never going to come through.”

Sofia nearly collided with her. Maya lowered the weapon and caught the girl by the shoulder.

“Are you hurt?”

“Sufficiently,” Sofia said.

Maya glanced at Jack. “She gets that from you.”

A blast shook the corridor. Dust fell from the pipes. The maintenance door behind Maya slammed shut, and a red indicator appeared above its frame.

OVERRIDE IN PROGRESS.

Jack looked at the row of doors. “Which way?”

Maya pointed left. “The service route runs toward the command hall.”

A second indicator lit above the door to their right.

Then a third.

One by one, the maintenance doors began locking.

“Move,” Jack said.

They ran left as steel bolts drove through the frames behind them. The corridor narrowed, forcing Maya behind Sofia. Jack reached the next door and pressed the Cage Key against its control plate.

The device’s white indicator flickered.

The lock stayed red.

“Come on,” Jack muttered.

Sofia stepped beside him. “It doesn’t recognize the key.”

“It recognized it before.”

“The system changed.”

“Can you open it?”

She studied the panel. Four black contacts formed a square beneath the reader. A thin blue line pulsed from one contact to the next.

“It’s not a lock,” she said. “It’s a direction sequence.”

Jack looked at her. “How do you know?”

“The restraints used the same pattern. They don’t ask for a code. They ask where you’re going.”

The corridor behind them thundered as something heavy struck the sealed access door.

Maya raised her pistol. “Sofia.”

Sofia touched the contacts in reverse order.

The door unlocked.

Jack shoved it open. They spilled into a transverse passage filled with steam. Pipes crossed overhead, and a ventilation fan rotated behind a wire cage at the far end. The heat pressed against Jack’s face. Sofia coughed once and pulled the collar of her jacket over her mouth.

A security team shouted from the corridor they had left.

Maya fired through the steam. “Go!”

Jack grabbed Sofia and pushed her toward the next access door. They had taken three steps when the floor jolted.

A section of wall folded inward behind them.

Steel shutters dropped across the passage, separating Jack and Sofia from Maya.

“Maya!” Jack shouted.

“I’m here!”

Her voice came through the narrowing gap.

Jack reached for Sofia, but the girl had already seized a red emergency handle beside the door. She yanked it down.

The ventilation fan reversed with a violent shriek.

Steam blasted across the corridor. Visibility vanished. Jack felt Sofia’s hand tear from his.

“Sofia!”

“I’m here!”

He lunged toward her voice. His shoulder struck a wall. Something hard clipped his ribs. The emergency lights flickered through the white cloud.

A maintenance door slammed between them.

Jack hit it with his palm. “Sofia!”

“Dad, listen!”

The corridor shook again. Bolts fired through the door.

“Open it!”

“I can’t. It’s a pressure door.”

“Use the contacts!”

“I’m trying!”

A sharp metallic snap came from the other side. Sofia had found the panel.

Jack turned toward the shutter behind him. Through the steam, he saw movement: security officers advancing with masks over their faces, rifles angled low. Maya was trapped beyond the descending barrier.

He had seconds.

“Sofia, get back from the door.”

“Why?”

“Just do it!”

Jack drew his pistol and fired into the pressure-door control box.

The panel burst. The door released with a violent hiss, but the blast threw Sofia backward. Jack caught a glimpse of her falling through the steam before the door slammed shut again.

“Dad!”

He threw himself against it.

The security team opened fire.

Rounds struck the wall around him. Jack dropped, rolled beneath the first burst, and fired toward the muzzle flashes. One officer fell. Another staggered into the steam.

Maya’s voice came through the shutter. “Jack, move!”

“I’m not leaving her!”

“You don’t have a choice!”

The overhead lights turned from red to white.

Every maintenance door in the corridor locked at once.

A facility voice spoke through the steam.

“Wing S override complete. Internal routes separated.”

Jack looked at the pressure door.

On the other side, Sofia pounded once against the metal.

“Dad!”

He slammed his fist against it. “I’m here!”

The door remained solid beneath his hand.

A second voice came through a speaker, calm and close.

Victor Kane.

“Family reunions are inefficient, Jack. Separation improves compliance.”

Jack raised his pistol toward the ceiling speaker. “Show yourself.”

“I already have.”

The speaker clicked off.

The remaining security officers advanced. Jack fired twice, then ducked behind a pipe as rounds sparked against the wall. He moved toward the shutter separating him from Maya, searching for a control panel.

Maya shouted, “The emergency handle beside you!”

Jack found it through the steam and pulled.

Nothing happened.

The handle had been welded in place by the override.

“Jack!” Maya called. “The Cage Key!”

He pressed it against the housing. The device sparked, its casing splitting farther.

The shutter rose half an inch.

Jack dropped flat and crawled beneath it. Maya grabbed his vest and dragged him through as rounds punched the steel above them.

He came up on the other side, coughing, empty-handed.

The pressure door remained between him and Sofia.

Maya looked at his face. “Where is she?”

“Behind the door.”

“Can you open it?”

“No.”

The facility began to vibrate harder. Beneath their boots, the transfer machinery accelerated. A blue light appeared along the floor, traveling toward the western end of Wing S.

Sofia’s voice came through the intercom, faint beneath the alarms.

“Dad, the blue line is moving!”

Jack turned toward the maintenance corridor. “What does it mean?”

“It’s the transfer route. The doors are following it.”

“Can you track it?”

“I can see the lights.”

“Then stay away from them.”

“I’m not staying here.”

The pressure door’s indicator changed from red to amber.

Maya looked at Jack. “It’s going to cycle.”

“How long?”

“Not long enough.”

Sofia spoke again. “There’s another door behind me. It leads to the lower service route.”

Jack pressed his forehead to the steel. “Can you reach it?”

“Maybe.”

“Don’t move until I tell you.”

“I’m done waiting for permission.”

The door unlocked.

Jack seized the handle and pulled. It opened two inches before a magnetic lock caught. Through the gap, he saw Sofia’s hand reach for him.

He grabbed her wrist.

For one second, father and daughter held on to each other across the narrow opening. Her skin was cold. Her grip was fierce.

Then the corridor lights turned blue.

The transfer system activated.

A force like a sudden current ripped through the door mechanism. The pressure door slammed sideways, wrenching Sofia’s arm from Jack’s hand. She stumbled backward as a steel partition dropped between them.

Jack struck the partition with both fists.

“Sofia!”

Her face appeared above the descending barrier. “Dad!”

He saw her reach toward a maintenance hatch behind her. She pulled it open and disappeared through the gap just as the partition sealed.

Jack drove the Cage Key into the metal. The device flashed once and died.

Nothing moved.

Maya grabbed his shoulder. “Jack, we have to go.”

He shoved her hand away. “She’s alone.”

“She’s alive and moving. If you stay here, Kane gets both of you.”

Jack stared at the sealed partition. On the other side, Sofia’s footsteps echoed through the maintenance route, growing fainter.

“Sofia!” he shouted. “Keep the blue lights behind you!”

Her voice came through the intercom, distorted but clear enough.

“Find the red doors!”

Then the speaker went dead.

The corridor behind Jack filled with smoke. Security was regrouping. Ahead, the blue transfer lights continued toward the Transit Vault, carrying the Null Ledger beneath the facility.

Jack looked at the timer.

00:17:04.

He had reached Sofia. He had held her. He had lost her again.

Maya pointed toward a red maintenance door at the end of the passage. “That’s our route.”

Jack picked up his pistol and moved.

Behind the sealed partition, Sofia was somewhere in the maze of Wing S, separated from him by steel, alarms, and Kane’s override.

Ahead, the Transit Vault waited beneath Geneva.

The clock kept running.

End of chapter 16. 24 more chapters in the full book.