Chapter 12 - The Underground Countdown
The digital timer on Victor Thorne’s detonator began to glow with a sharp, blood-red light. 02:59... 02:58...
Chloe didn't flinch. She kept her weight balanced evenly on the heels of her designer boots, her eyes locked entirely on Victor’s thumb hovering over the activation switch. Every instinct honed over months of corporate warfare and psychological survival screamed at her to calculate, not panic.
"You think you’re holding all the cards, Victor," Chloe said, her voice echoing steadily off the damp concrete walls. "You assume that because my security detail is upstairs, I walked down here completely unprotected."
Victor laughed, a dry, raspy sound that scraped against the stone. "Save the bluff, little girl. Your bodyguards are stationed three levels up, locked out by biometric override codes I personally installed into this building's architecture ten years ago. You are entirely alone."
"I was alone when I scrubbed marble floors with acid, too," Chloe replied, a dangerous, razor-sharp smile cutting across her face. "And look how well that turned out for Elena."
Before Victor could register the psychological shift in her tone, Chloe’s right hand whipped into her blazer pocket, pressing a hard, encrypted panic button wired directly into the Vance International defense satellite feed.
May you like
Beep.
Instantly, the humming transformer units in the service tunnel died. Total, suffocating darkness crashed down upon them as the emergency grid shut off, replaced immediately by the piercing wail of red strobe lights and the heavy mechanical clang of steel blast doors slamming shut overhead, sealing Sector 4 completely hermetically.
