Chapter 19 - The Fall of Vanguard
I swept her legs out with my good arm, slamming her to the floor, and smashed the override butt of a fallen rifle against her side, knocking her unconscious.
I scrambled to the main console, typing in the manual emergency override code I had memorized from my own vault systems. The heavy glass chamber hissed open, releasing the pressure.
Ethan tumbled out, throwing his arms around my neck. "Dad! Dad!"
"I've got you, buddy. I've got you," I gasped, lifting him into my arm while keeping my body shielded around him.
Above us, on the observation deck, Elena's calm composure finally broke. "Initiate purge protocol! Seal the lower levels!"
"She's going to flood the facility with gas!" Vincent shouted, stumbling toward us, severely wounded but still standing. "Dominic, get Ethan to the drainage tunnel!"
"I'm not leaving without ending this," I said.
I grabbed a dropped grenade from an enforcer's vest, pulled the pin, and threw it straight into the central bio-reactor cooling system behind the main console.
"Vincent, take Ethan! Go!" I commanded, handing my son over to my loyal chief of security.
"Dad, no!" Ethan cried out as Vincent pulled him away toward the escape tunnel.
The grenade exploded, setting off a catastrophic chain reaction. Alarms shrieked as red blast doors began slamming down across the corridors. I vaulted up the stairs to the observation deck, kicking through the cracked glass frame just as Elena tried to reach the roof access door.
I grabbed her by the arm, spinning her around.
"It's over, Elena," I growled, the flames of the burning reactor reflecting in my eyes.
"You can't destroy Vanguard, Dominic!" she spat, pulling a sidearm. "We are everywhere!"
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"Then I'll start with you," I said.
I didn't shoot her. I pulled the mechanical emergency lever beside the roof hatch, locking the heavy blast door shut from the inside, sealing both of us inside the burning core of the collapsing lab.
