Chapter 5 - Blood and Smoke
"You were never going to take us to safety, Cole," Karen said, her voice unnervingly flat. The frantic, weeping mother from the emergency room had vanished completely, leaving behind an operative whose eyes were void of fear. "The agency doesn't do extractions for breached subjects. You were sent to sanitize the scene."
Cole raised his hands slowly, backing away toward the massive water heaters. "Karen, listen to me. I was hired by your brother. Not the agency. Julian paid for this."
Ava felt the room spinning. Her mother’s words made no sense, yet the cold reality of the weapon in Karen’s hand was undeniable. "Mom... what are you doing? Please, my leg hurts so bad..."
Karen looked down at Ava, a brief flicker of maternal grief cracking through her stone facade. "I know, baby. I know it hurts. But pain is the only thing keeping you alert right now. Look at me, Ava. Look at my eyes."
Ava forced herself to look up into her mother’s pale, sweat-streaked face.
"The chip in your leg," Karen whispered, keeping the detonator pointed at Cole. "It isn't a tracker. It’s a key. The only decryption cipher that can unlock the federal archives in Cheyenne Mountain. Richard knew it. That’s why he kept you trapped in that house. That’s why he watched every step you took."
A massive smash rattled the heavy iron bar behind them. Richard was slamming a sledgehammer against the boiler room door. The steel groaned, the latch bending under the force.
"Open the door, Karen!" Richard’s muffled voice roared through the metal. "You detonate that charge, and the whole foundation collapses! You won't make it to the street!"
"He’s right," Cole said, sweat dripping into his eyes. "The boiler pressure down here will vaporize this entire wing. Let me take the girl through the ventilation shaft. You deal with Richard."
Karen didn't hesitate. She threw a heavy brass key at Cole’s feet. "Take her to the rail yard behind Sector 7. If I am not there in twenty minutes, cut the chip out of her leg and leave her at St. Jude's."
"Mom, no! Don't leave me!" Ava shrieked, clawing at her mother's coat as Cole scooped the teenager out of the wheelchair into his arms.
The iron bar snapped with a violent crack. The heavy doors blew inward. Richard stepped into the room, his face covered in soot, leveling his gun directly at Karen.
May you like
Karen pressed the red button on the detonator.
A blinding flash swallowed the room. The concussive blast threw Cole and Ava into the open service chute just as the wall of fire erupted, collapsing the concrete ceiling behind them in a roar of tumbling stone and screaming metal.
