Chapter 62 Live Samples

Chapter 62 Live Samples
Ryan Cross - POV
The case weighed wrong in my hands.
I set it on broken concrete, fingers steady despite everything. Beside me Kai slumped against the wall, breathing hard, his makeshift bandage already soaked dark red.
"Open it," he said between breaths. "Need to see what almost got us killed."
The latches released with a pressurized hiss. Twelve vials inside, nested in foam like fragile eggs. Emma's blood filled each one. Dark. Dense. Wrong.
I lifted one carefully. Held it up to the dying emergency lights.
The blood moved.
Not the way preserved samples should move. This was active. Cellular. Like it didn't understand it had been separated from its host.
"What's wrong?" Kai pushed off the wall. "You're doing that thing."
"What thing?"
"Where your face goes blank and your brain starts cataloging problems."
The bond made us too readable to each other. No hiding anymore.
I pulled out my penlight, shined it through the vial. The blood didn't just absorb the light. It drank it in, then pulsed faintly with its own luminescence. Impossible. Violated every principle of cellular biology I'd spent six years studying.
"Still active," I said. Kept my voice level. Clinical. The way I always spoke when my mind was screaming. "Genetically active."
"English, Ryan."
"Her cells aren't dying." I set the vial down. Picked up another. Same impossible glow. "Blood cells have a lifespan measured in minutes outside the body. These are acting like they're still connected to her circulatory system."
Kai moved beside me, his paint stained fingers hovering near the vial. "That shouldn't be possible."
"I know."
Through the bond I felt Emma. Distant. Afraid. Underground somewhere with danger closing in. I couldn't reach her. Couldn't help. Could only stand here staring at her blood while she fought for her life.
The helplessness tasted metallic.
I turned the vial slowly, watching the blood shift inside. My photographic memory pulled up textbook diagrams. Research papers on cellular preservation I'd memorized for exams. Everything I knew about blood storage and viability.
None of it explained this.
"We destroy them anyway." Kai's voice went hard. "Smash the glass. Burn everything. Done."
"Won't work." I flicked my lighter open. Held the flame under one vial. Counted to ten in my head while the glass grew hot against my fingers. No pain receptors meant I could hold it longer than most people. The blood inside didn't coagulate. Didn't change at all. Just kept pulsing. "See?"
"Why isn't it burning?"
"Conduit blood." I set it down before the glass could crack. "Her abilities are coded into her DNA. Whatever makes her powerful enough to amplify us, it's protecting these samples from standard destruction methods."
Kai went pale under the grime. "You're saying we can't destroy them."
"I'm saying normal methods won't work." My mind raced through options. Chemical degradation. Radiation exposure. Extreme temperature fluctuation. "We need something that specifically counteracts conduit abilities."
"Such as?"
"Another conduit." I met his eyes. "Emma."
"She's trapped." Kai's voice cracked. "Underground with soldiers hunting her and you want to wait around playing scientist?"
"I want to make sure this matters." The words came out sharper than intended. "If we don't handle this right, they make new samples. New conduits. We die for nothing."
Kai dragged his good hand through his hair. Left streaks of dried paint mixed with fresh blood. His synesthesia was probably painting my emotions in colors I couldn't see. Making everything worse.
"How long until Emma reaches us?" he asked.
I calculated quickly. Maintenance tunnel distance. Evacuation speed with injured prisoners. Best case scenario.
"Thirty minutes."
"We don't have thirty minutes." Kai gestured back toward the collapsed tunnel. "Vance is trapped, not dead. His people will dig him out or send backup. We're sitting here holding the most valuable samples in the world."
Right. He was right.
I grabbed the case to close it when something caught my eye. Small. Easy to miss. A tiny green light blinking under the foam padding.
"Kai."
He leaned in. "What?"
I used my penlight. There, mounted flush with the metal. A device no bigger than a quarter. And another one opposite it.
"Tracking devices." My stomach dropped. "The case is broadcasting."
"Since when?"
"Since Vance grabbed it. Military grade. Long range." I traced the signal path mentally. "Encrypted frequency."
Kai's eyes went wide. "They know where we are."
"Have known since we took it." I checked the other corners. Found two more trackers. Four total. Redundant systems. "That's why the soldier threw it during the collapse. Not to save the samples. To mark us."
"We need to move."
"Wait." I pried the first tracker loose with my pocket knife. Small but expensive. Government contract level equipment. "If we run, they follow. If we destroy the trackers, they know we found them and close in fast."
"What's the alternative?"
My mind built probability trees. Risk matrices. The calculations I always ran when my inability to feel pain meant fear couldn't cloud my judgment.
"We use them. Keep one active. Plant the others somewhere else. Split their forces."
"Only works if we know where they are." Kai gestured at empty tunnels. "We're guessing blind."
Right. We needed intelligence.
I reached through the bond for Blake. His tactical mind. His network. But the connection felt weak this deep underground. Static and distance.
My phone had no signal. Expected but frustrating.
"Can you paint it?" I asked Kai. "Their positions. Where they're coming from."
"My hand's destroyed." He held up the bloody wrapping. "Can barely feel my fingers."
"Try."
He stared at me. Then nodded once.
Kai found charcoal in his pocket. Always had supplies. He knelt by a clean section of wall, unwrapped his ruined hand, started sketching with the other one.
Quick strokes. Rough but precise. His synesthesia bled through in ways I couldn't see but felt through the bond. Colors translating to certainty.
I watched him work while monitoring our surroundings. Every sound could be boots on concrete. Every air current shift could mean discovery.
The sketch formed. Facility outline. Tunnel networks. Moving dots representing people. Too many dots.
"How many?" I asked.
Kai's hand moved faster, adding details. "Twelve. Could be fifteen. Coming from three directions."
"Time?"
"Five minutes. Maybe less."
Not enough time to run far. Not enough time to hide well.
I looked at the case. Emma's blood still pulsing inside like a heartbeat separated from its body. Her DNA waiting to be turned into weapons we couldn't imagine.
"Paint an exit route," I said. "One they're not covering."
Kai shifted to fresh wall. His injured hand shook violently but he kept going. New sketch. Different paths. One line glowed brighter than others in his artistic vision.
"There. Maintenance shaft." He pointed. "Exits near vehicle bay. Not covered yet."
"Yet."
"Two minutes after we move that way, they figure it out." His prophetic painting showed branching timelines. Futures splitting. "Cut us off before we reach it."
"Unless we slow them down."
Kai met my eyes. "You have something."
"Beginning of something." I pried three trackers loose. Handed them over. "Plant these in different directions. Make them think we split up."
"Leaves one tracker active. Still broadcasting."
"Yes." I left the fourth attached to the case. "They expect us to run. We hide instead. Let them chase ghosts while we wait for Emma."
"That's terrible."
"You have better?"
He didn't. Neither did I.
Kai took the trackers and disappeared into shadows. Quick and quiet despite his injuries. His footsteps faded.
I was alone with samples that wouldn't die and soldiers I couldn't see and a countdown happening in my head.
Through the bond Emma's fear spiked sudden and sharp. Something bad happening wherever she was.
I wanted to help. Wanted to reach her. But I was here with impossible blood and people coming to kill me for it.
My phone buzzed once. Weak signal breaking through. Message from Blake: "Ambush. They're tracking the case. Get out now."
Too late.
I heard them before I saw them. Boots on concrete. Professional spacing. Multiple angles of approach. Closing in.
Kai's distraction hadn't worked. Or they'd adapted faster than his painting predicted.
Either way, surrounded.
I gripped the case tighter. Pulled my knife. Not much against trained soldiers but my only option.
The footsteps got closer.
A voice called out, echoing through the tunnel. Male. American accent. Professional. "Mr. Cross. We know you're there with the samples. Put down the case. Walk away. Everyone wins."
Not everyone. Never everyone.
"Identify yourself," I called back. Buying seconds. Gathering data.
"Private contractor. Asset retrieval specialist." The voice stayed calm. Almost friendly. "Those samples are worth ten million to our client. You're worth considerably less. Simple math."
Ten million. For Emma's blood.
The number made something cold settle in my chest.
"Samples stay with me," I said.
"Then you stay with them. Permanently."
The footsteps rushed forward. All at once. Coordinated.
I ran.