Chapter 19 - The Final TurnDown in the subterranean vault, Arthur Sterling watched the progress bar hit ninety-eight percent with a triumphant grin.
"It's over," Sterling murmured, raising a glass of champagne. "Checkmate, Cross."
Suddenly, the progress bar on Sterling's master console froze. The numbers flickered erratically: 98%... 85%... 50%...
Sterling's smile vanished. "What?! Who is interfering with the sequence?!"
"Sir! The pressure in the primary core is dropping!" his technician yelled in panic, frantically typing on the keyboard. "Someone has opened the manual relief valve from the fiftieth-floor auxiliary line!"
Sterling’s face turned the color of ash. "Find them! Stop them!"
Up in the service shaft, Lily threw her entire body weight against the stubborn manual bypass lever. It was rusted shut, locked in place by years of thermal buildup.
Come on... move! she sobbed, her muscles screaming with fatigue.
She braced her feet against the concrete wall and pulled with everything she had left.
Click.
The lever snapped loose, spinning freely three full rotations counter-clockwise.
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A deafening roar echoed through the building as a massive wave of superheated steam vented harmlessly out of the roof's emergency exhaust stacks. Down in the auditorium, the glowing violet light of the Prometheus Engine instantly faded back to a calm, steady, clinical blue.
On the television screen, Ethan Cross blinked in surprise, stopping his speech for a split second before smiling smoothly at the confused audience. "As you can see, ladies and gentlemen... CrossTech engineering is foolproof."
