Chapter 101 The Board’s Regards
Chapter 101 The Board’s Regards
Marcus
The helicopter groaned as the giant crane hook dragged it downward. Metal shrieked against metal. Above the cage, Silas stood on the tilting landing skid, the gold mask covering half his face catching the violent reflection of the sparks.
He didn't look like a man who had just survived a crashing carrier ship. He looked like an executioner.
"Silas!" Grand Marshall Vane shrieked. Her grip on the live cables loosened just a fraction as she stared up at the man she used to command. "What are you doing? I am the Director of this sector! I gave you your life!"
"The Board found a better investment," Silas shouted back over the deafening roar of the dying engine.
He pulled the trigger.
The heavy sniper round didn't hit Vane. It punched straight through the mechanical winch holding our cage to the chopper. The thick steel cable snapped with a sound like a cracking whip.
The cage dropped instantly.
My stomach slammed into my throat as we entered a free fall. Vane lost her footing completely, her body flying upward toward the ceiling grid of the cage as the live wires sparked wildly around her. I grabbed the nearest iron bar with one hand, my other arm wrapping tightly around Maya’s small, shaking shoulders.
I have to cushion her, my mind screamed. If she hits the marble at this speed, the chip won't be the only thing that breaks.
The blood-red data lines on my skin flared with a desperate, dying heat. I forced the energy downward, creating a small, crackling cushion of raw electricity beneath the iron floor grid just a millisecond before we hit the ground.
We crashed through the mall’s second-floor balcony before slamming into the main lobby floor.
The impact was brutal. The iron bars bent inward with a sickening crunch. The electric cushion exploded, absorbing most of the deadly force, but the shockwave still rattled my teeth and knocked the vision clean out of my eyes. Everything went gray. I lay on the cold marble, choking on white plaster dust and the sharp smell of ozone.
Sarah
The explosion of the crash threw Jax and me flat against the concrete pillars. The ceiling crane controls sparked and died, the heavy steel cables snapping and raining down into the smoke like giant metal snakes.
"Marcus!" I coughed, wiping a layer of white dust from my eyes.
Through the thick, swirling fog of the lobby, the outline of the black cage looked like a crushed soda can. It was lying on its side, surrounded by a mountain of shattered glass and broken marble tiles.
"Jax, watch Lily!" I yelled, pushing myself up.
Every single bone in my body felt broken, but the fear of seeing Marcus dead gave me a sudden, terrifying burst of strength. I sprinted toward the wreckage, my hands sliding over the hot, twisted metal bars.
Inside, Marcus was curled in a tight ball, his body shielding Maya. The little girl was unconscious, the purple lights behind her ears flickering weakly like a dying candle.
On the other side of the cage, Grand Marshall Vane was dragging herself out through a gap in the bent bars. Her red coat was soaked in dark blood, and her left leg was twisted at a horrific, unnatural angle. Yet, her hands were still clawing at the floor, trying to reach a heavy silver shard of glass.
"It's... not over," Vane wheezed, her pale eyes staring at me with a madness that made my skin crawl. "The sky... the satellite is already locked. Maya is just the battery. The transmission has already left the atmosphere."
"Shut up!" I roared, swinging the heavy iron wrench down onto her hand.
The metal connected with a loud crack. Vane let out a sharp cry, her fingers opening as she collapsed flat against the debris. I didn't care about her corporate title. I didn't care about her army of clones. I wanted her to suffer for every single life she had stolen from our home.
Marcus
I forced my eyes open, my hands trembling as I pushed myself off Maya's chest. "Sarah... she’s right. The signal... I can feel it."
The blue lines on my skin weren't glowing anymore. They were vibrating. A strange, high-pitched frequency was humming right through the air, making my teeth ache. It felt like an invisible current was slowly wrapping around the entire city center, tightening like a noose.
"Maya's mind is the router," I panted, crawling out of the crushed cage. I held the little girl in my arms. Her skin was freezing. "If the satellite finishes the loop, the signal will bounce back down to every lower sector. We stopped the ground lines, but the sky is completely open."
Suddenly, a heavy shadow blocked out the moonlight pouring through the shattered roof.
Silas dropped down from the balcony above, landing perfectly on his boots. His gold mask glinted in the dark. He didn't look at Vane, and he didn't look at me. His eyes were fixed entirely on Maya.
"The Board doesn't want the lower sectors wiped out, Marcus," Silas said, his deep voice echoing through the ruined lobby. He pulled a long, glowing blue syringe from his tactical belt. "They just want the control. They want the network to belong to them. Give me the girl, and I'll let you and your little friends walk out of here alive."
"You're a dog, Silas," Jax spat, stepping up beside me with his rifle raised. His arm was bleeding heavily, but his aim was dead-on. "You sell yourself to whoever gives you a new leash."
"It's called business, street rat," Silas sneered.
He didn't raise his gun. Instead, he tapped a small button on the side of his gold mask.
A heavy, metallic thud echoed from the dark hallways behind him. Three massive, silver shapes walked out of the shadows. They looked exactly like Julian, but their armour was painted a flat, matte black, and their eyes were burning with a cold, blood-red light.
The board had stolen my father’s blueprints. They hadn't just built clones of Vane; they had mass-produced my brother.
"Meet the new line," Silas whispered, a cruel smile spreading across his face. "And they don't have human feelings to hold them back."
One of the black robots raised its heavy arm, a triple-barreled mini-gun spinning with a terrifying metallic click.
The Board has mass-produced Julian's model as an army of killers! With three red-eyed war machines blocking the exit, how can Marcus protect the child?