Chapter 105 The Pure Evil

Chapter 105 The Pure Evil
Marcus

The narrow hallway felt like a coffin. Jax gasped for air, his body pinned against the concrete by the black robot’s heavy fist. I could hear the bones in his shoulder groaning under the pressure. Maya lay perfectly still in my left arm, her tiny body far too light, her breathing nothing but a faint whisper against my neck.

And there stood Mason. My blood uncle. The man who looked so much like my father but shared absolutely none of his soul.

"I am losing my patience, Marcus," Mason said. His face was entirely smooth, utterly empty of pity. He held the crimson cylinder just inches from Maya’s forehead. The device hummed, a cruel, buzzing sound that made the hairs on my arms stand up. "Drop the girl and walk into the lift. Or I take what I need by force."

My soul burned with a desperate, heavy rage. He killed my father. He turned Julian into scrap. Now he wants to hollow out this kid just for an encryption key. The raw desire for revenge wasn’t just a thought anymore; it was a physical ache in my chest. I wanted to strangle him. I wanted to watch his perfect, expensive life shatter into pieces.

"You’re a coward," I spat, my voice raw and trembling. "You hide behind these stolen machines because you’re too weak to face me yourself."

Mason shrugged, a small, elegant movement. "It is called leverage, Nephew. A real businessman never risks his own skin when he can use a tool."

"Marcus, don't listen to him!" Sarah yelled. She tried to lunge forward, her iron wrench raised high, but the second black robot stepped out from the broken wall, its yellow eyes locking onto her chest. The heavy steel barrel of its arm gun clicked loudly.

"One more step, girl, and I'll paint this hallway with your blood," Mason warned without even looking at her. "Marcus. The choice is yours. The girl's life, or yours and your friends'. Five seconds."

Sarah

My lungs were on fire. The bruising on my throat from the previous attack made every breath taste like copper. I looked at Jax, whose face was rapidly turning gray as the robot crushed him against the wall. I looked at Marcus, caught in the middle, holding a dying child.

We can't win a straight fight, my mind screamed. We are broken. We are out of bullets.

But then I noticed something. The heavy utility pipes running along the ceiling directly above Mason’s head were vibrating. They weren't water pipes. They were marked with a bright yellow stripe, high-pressure hydraulic fluid for the mall's heavy freight elevators.

I caught Marcus's eye for a split second. I didn't say a word. I just flicked my gaze upward toward the ceiling line.

Marcus didn't blink. The gray tracks on his skin suddenly twitched. He understood.

"Fine," Marcus said loudly, taking a slow step toward Mason. He lowered his arms slightly, pretending to offer Maya forward. "You win, Uncle. Just let Jax go."

"A sensible decision," Mason said, a thin, satisfied smile touching his lips. He lowered the crimson cylinder by an inch, his focus shifting entirely to the child in Marcus's arms.

Marcus

He fell for it. For all his corporate intelligence, Mason’s arrogance was his biggest blind spot. He thought I was totally spent. He thought the lower-sector boy was completely beaten.

I didn't have enough power to create a lightning bolt. I didn't have enough energy to protect us with a shield. But I had just enough residual static to trigger a spark.

As I took another step, my boot slid against a loose copper wire dangling from the broken wall. I stomped my heel down hard on the bare metal, forcing the absolute last drop of my body's bio-electricity down through my leg and into the building's wiring system.

The current didn't go toward Mason. It travelled straight up the wall, hitting the automated pressure valve on the main ceiling pipe.

BANG.

The heavy steel valve blew completely off its brackets. A massive, blinding torrent of scalding, high-pressure hydraulic fluid sprayed straight down into Mason's face and eyes.

Mason let out a horrific, high-pitched shriek of agony, dropping the crimson cylinder as he clutched his blinded, burning face. "My eyes! Kill them! Kill them all!" he screamed, stumbling backward into the dark corridor.

The sudden blast of fluid distracted the machines. The robot holding Jax loosened its grip by a fraction.

Jax didn't waste the second. He drove his good elbow straight into the robot’s central eye lens, shattering the glass. The machine staggered back, and Jax tumbled to the floor, coughing and gasping.

"Sarah, the lift!" I yelled, grabbing Jax by his good shoulder and dragging him toward the open green doors of the cargo elevator.

Sarah scooped up the dropped crimson cylinder from the floor, then grabbed Maya from my arms, sprinting into the metal box. We all threw ourselves inside just as the two black robots recovered, their yellow eyes flashing with a sudden, furious red light.

Jax slammed his fist into the heavy emergency close button.

The thick steel doors slid shut with a massive, echoing clang. A split second later, the sound of heavy metal fists began to smash against the outside of the door, denting the reinforced steel inward with terrifying force.

The elevator groaned, its heavy cables shifting as it began to drop fast, plunging us down into the pitch-black tunnels below the city.

But as the elevator descended, a small speaker in the ceiling clicked to life. It wasn't Mason's voice.

"Emergency protocol engaged," a cold, computerised voice stated through the dark. "Elevator shaft locked from lower terminal. High-voltage execution grid activated in five seconds."

Beneath our boots, the metal floorboards began to glow with a bright, terrifying blue light.

The elevator is a trap, and the floor is turning into an electric chair! With nowhere to jump and the doors locked tight, how will Marcus survive the high-voltage execution?