Chapter 4 - THE MOLEThe atmosphere inside the cold room turned to ice.
Colin slowly backed toward the doorway, his hands trembling as he pulled a small black device from his coat pocket—a signal beacon pulsing with a faint blue light.
“Colin…” Richard said, his voice terrifyingly quiet. “What did you do?”
“I had no choice, Richard!” Colin yelled, his composure breaking down completely. “They’ve had my family for three weeks! If I didn't deliver Sarah Vance and the neural algorithm code by midnight tonight, they promised to send my children home in boxes!”
“Who is ‘they’?” Richard demanded, taking a step forward.
“The board!” Colin screamed. “The senior board members of Harrison Dynamics! They’ve been operating a black-budget military division behind your back for five years! They don't want to cure sick children, Richard—they want to weaponize Marcus Vance’s neural-link technology for battlefield autonomous units! And your son, Ethan? His medical care was just the testbed!”
Sarah gasped, wrapping her arms around Mia.
Downbelow, heavy boots began pounding up the wooden staircase. The frame of the building shook under the weight of the tactical team.
“You sold out my son?” Richard’s voice was barely a whisper, but the fury behind it was absolute.
“I saved my own!” Colin shouted, pressing a button on his remote.
The heavy steel door was suddenly blown inward by a breacher charge. The blast wave knocked Richard to the ground and sent splinters of wood flying through the air. Smoke poured into the room, thick and grey.
Tactical operatives swept in, their red laser sights slicing through the haze.
“Secure the girl!” a mercenary commander barked. “Kill the rest!”
In the chaos, Mia didn't panic. She reached into her backpack, pulled out a small, modified aerosol canister, and hurled it directly into the center of the squad.
BANG!
A blinding flash of white magnesium light and high-frequency sound detonated inside the small room. The mercenaries dropped their weapons, clutching their helmets and screaming in agony as their night-vision goggles overloaded.
“Move!” Sarah yelled, grabbing Mia.
Richard scrambled up from the floor, grabbed Colin by the collar before he could escape, and dragged him along as they sprinted toward the rear fire escape.
They burst out onto the icy metal stairs just as bullets began ripping through the brick wall behind them. The night air was freezing, but the heat of the fire spreading inside the building warmed their backs.
“Where is the code, Sarah?” Richard yelled over the wind as they scrambled down the iron ladder into the darkness below.
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Sarah looked down at her small daughter. Mia reached into her purple backpack and pulled out a worn, stainless-steel toy robot—the exact twin of the one Ethan had dropped at the airport.
“It’s not in a computer, Richard,” Sarah said, her voice shaking. “Marcus built the entire neural architecture into the hardware of those two toys. One half is in Mia’s hands… and the other half is currently in your son’s pocket.”
