Chapter 36 BILLY ERNEST
The alarms shrieked through the underground facility, a high, keening sound that rattled the metal walls. Red lights washed everything in a frantic pulse, shadows, broken glass, the overturned chair Billy had kicked away while dragging Lea back from the collapsing corridor.
“George!” Lea screamed.
He didn’t turn. He was already halfway down the hallway, sprinting after the Councilman, Ricardo Hale, who ran with the desperation of a man who felt his empire crumbling beneath his shoes. The toxin countdown blared overhead.
89 SECONDS UNTIL CONTAINMENT PURGE
Lea staggered forward, but Billy caught her around the waist and yanked her back behind the structural beam.
“The walkway’s unstable,” he growled. “You step there, you drop straight into the filtration shaft.”
“I don’t care!” she hissed, struggling. “He can’t go after that man alone!”
Billy’s fingers dug into her arm, not cruelly but firmly. “He’s not alone. He’s just a little too furious.
George barely registered the alarms anymore. His hearing narrowed to Hale’s labored breathing ahead, the slap of his shoes against the wet floor, and the constant mechanical grind of the ventilation systems preparing to release something he didn’t have the luxury to imagine.
“Hale!” George shouted.
The Councilman didn’t stop. He ran faster.
George pushed harder, even though the muscles in his legs burned. His ribs ached from the earlier impact with the steel railing. But nothing, not exhaustion, not pain, not the threat of whatever deadly chemical was about to flood the facility, could slow the storm inside him.
This man had targeted his wife. Broken into her home. Drugged her. Dragged her into some tangled conspiracy because George once refused to play his games.
Hale should have run sooner.
George lunged, catching the back of the Councilman’s coat and yanking him so violently that Hale slammed backward into the wall with a gasp.
“You...don’t...understand,” Hale choked out.
George didn’t give him room to speak. He slammed him again.
“You don’t get to talk.”
Hale coughed, struggling to steady himself. “You can’t stop this”
George grabbed him by the collar. “Watch me.”
He shoved the man toward the ground, pinning one knee into Hale’s spine as he reached for the keycard clipped to his belt. Hale twisted, trying to claw it back.
“You override that system,” Hale wheezed, “and thirty years of groundwork collapses.”
George leaned close, his voice razor-sharp. “That sounds like a lovely bonus.”
He tore the keycard free.
Overhead, the alarm blared again.
63 SECONDS UNTIL CONTAINMENT PURGE
Back at the collapsing corridor, Lea watched the clock blink down, each second a pounding fist against her chest.
“Billy…” Her voice broke. “If that purge releases”
“It’ll drop every living thing in here in minutes.” Billy wiped sweat and grime from his forehead. He sounded grim, but not afraid. “He’ll get us out. He always does.”
She swallowed hard. “You trust him that much?”
Billy didn’t look at her. “I just know the man.”
Lea stared at him. “You’re still hiding something.”
Billy’s jaw tightened. “Now isn’t the time.”
“But it’s connected, isn’t it? Everything.”
He said nothing, and that silence felt like confirmation.
Another tremor ran through the walkway. Lea grabbed the railing as the floor beneath them dipped an inch. The metal groaned, buckling under its own weight.
“We’re going to fall,” she whispered.
Billy checked the structural beams, eyes assessing. “We won’t if we move now.”
He pulled her with him, guiding her toward a safer patch of flooring. She stumbled, but he kept his grip firm, steady, strangely protective. When her foot slipped, he caught her elbow.
“You’re shaking,” he said quietly.
“You think?” she snapped, her voice cracking. “I’ve been kidnapped twice, drugged, dragged across a forest, nearly shot at, and now the entire building is about to gas itself because someone hates my husband’s existence!”
Billy blinked. “…Fair.”
The alarm above them shrieked again, louder.
40 SECONDS UNTIL CONTAINMENT PURGE
Lea’s knees weakened. “George, please,” she whispered under her breath. “Hurry.”
George dragged Hale toward the central console room. The keycard scanner blinked angrily red as he shoved the Councilman in front of it.
"Open it," George ordered.
Hale panted, sweat and rainwater mixing on his temple. "Even if I did, you can’t override the purge without the second"
George pressed Hale’s face harder against the glass. "Open. It."
Hale swallowed, lifted shaking fingers, and pressed the card to the scanner.
A beep.
Green light.
The door hissed open.
Inside, a massive terminal displayed schematics of the entire facility, red warnings flashing across every section.
George shoved Hale toward the nearest chair. "Disable the purge."
"I, I can’t!"
George’s eyes darkened. "I will break your wrist."
Hale flinched. "It’s biometric locked! Only two people can override it, the chief engineer and..."
"And who?"
Hale hesitated.
"Hale." George’s tone dropped to something lethal.
"…and me," he whispered.
"So do it."
Hale reached toward the glass interface with trembling hands. "If I abort this, my investors, the Council, the alliance behind the Crescent Project, they will erase me."
George grabbed his collar. "You should have thought of that before touching my wife."
Hale’s breath hitched. He pressed his palm to the screen.
A fingerprint scan flickered.
OVERRIDE SEQUENCE INITIATED
ENTER PASSCODE
Hale typed quickly. Numbers, symbols, frantic motion.
The building trembled.
22 SECONDS UNTIL CONTAINMENT PURGE
George felt the weight of every beat of time choking them.
The console beeped.
WARNING: OVERRIDE STALLED
SECOND VERIFICATION REQUIRED
Hale froze. "…No. No, no, no, this wasn’t in the original"
George grabbed him. "Finish it!"
Hale shook his head frantically. "It needs another scan, another authorized signature, someone who has access at Level Seven. I’m Level Six. They changed the protocol!"
"Who has Level Seven?" George demanded.
Hale’s trembling fingers hovered above the keys. His voice cracked.
"…Only the head of the Crescent Project."
George’s blood ran cold.
"And where is he?"
Hale stared at him with wide, helpless eyes.
"That clearance belongs to one man," he whispered. “The project’s architect.”
George’s stomach twisted. "Say his name."
Hale swallowed once, hard.
"…Billy Ernest."
Lea’s breath caught.
Billy stiffened beside her.
He turned slowly, met her eyes, and in that instant, she knew.
Not because he looked guilty.
But because he didn’t look surprised.
She stepped back, her heart stumbling painfully. "Billy… what does that mean?"
His expression didn’t change. Rainwater dripped from his hair, trailing down his cheek like something that should have been a tear.
"It means," he said quietly, "I need to get to that door before you both die."
He grabbed her wrist.
"Move."
In the control room, George stared at Hale like the floor had vanished beneath them.
"Billy?" George said, voice low and dangerous. "Billy Ernest runs the Crescent Project?"
Hale nodded frantically. "He built the research division. He built the toxin protocol. This entire facility was originally his, until the Council bought it out and repurposed it."
George cursed, shoving him toward the panel.
"This is why he’s involved. This is why he..."
Footsteps thundered outside.
Fast.
Urgent.
The door slid open.
Billy stood there, breath ragged, Lea behind him.
George froze.
Lea froze.
Hale whimpered.
Billy’s gaze swept the room in a single sharp pass. He took two steps forward, ignoring George entirely as he reached the second biometric pad.
“Billy,” George said, voice cold as steel. “If you do anything except shut this down...”
Billy pressed his palm against the scanner.
The console beeped.
A green ring flashed across the screen.
“Level Seven authorization confirmed,” the machine announced.
Billy didn’t look at anyone as he typed the second code.
The countdown blinked red.
OVERRIDE ACCEPTED
PURGE SEQUENCE TERMINATED
The entire building groaned, lights flickering back to white. The alarms cut off in a single abrupt silence that left everyone breathless.
George exhaled once, slow and controlled, though his chest rose sharply.
Lea sagged against the wall as her knees threatened to give way.
Hale slumped in his chair, shaking.
Billy finally lifted his eyes to George.
"You’re welcome," he said.
George’s jaw clenched. "We’re not done."
"No," Billy replied. "We’re not."
The tension between them crackled with something old and bitter, history, betrayal, unfinished business.
Lea pushed off the wall, voice hoarse. "Billy… tell me the truth. Are you behind this?"
Billy’s eyes softened, not warm, but honest. "No, Lea. But I built the machine they’re using. And now I have to help you destroy it."
George stared at him, unreadable. "Why?"
Billy ran a hand through his hair. "Because the people behind the Crescent Project aren’t done with you. Or with me."
Lea’s breath shook. "Then who?"
Billy’s answer was a quiet, heavy blow.
"The real architect," he said. "The one who hired Hale. The one who ordered your abduction. The one who wants George ruined."
Lea looked between them. "Who?"
Billy’s gaze met hers.
"The same person who once shared your husband’s last name," he said.
"His brother."
And the room went still.