Chapter 92 The Last Counter

Chapter 92 The Last Counter
Marcus

00:01

The red numbers hit my eyes like a physical slap. My father hadn’t hidden a treasure here. He had built a grave for anyone who tried to steal his life’s work. The sheer weight of his calculation hit me, Julian Thorne loved me, but he hated his enemies more. He knew they would follow my blood right to this spot.

"Get back!" the Director shrieked, her perfectly calm face instantly twisting into absolute terror.

She scrambled backward, tripping over her own long coat as her soldiers completely panicked. They dropped their rifles, turning to sprint down the stage steps.

I didn't try to run. My hands were still locked in the magnetic cuffs, drawing out my energy and leaving my muscles heavy. I simply threw my body sideways, rolling off the edge of the stage floorboards just as the countdown hit zero.

The world didn't explode in a wall of hot orange fire.

Instead, a massive, deafening thump rattled through the floorboards. It was an EMP, an electromagnetic pulse so powerful it felt like a thick, invisible wall hitting my chest. A blinding wave of blue static expanded from the iron hatch, sweeping across the entire auditorium in a split second.

The high-tech magnetic cuffs around my wrists instantly sparked, hissed, and popped open. The cold pressure vanished, and my hands were free.

Every single light in the conservatory died at once. The massive neon signs outside the glass dome blinked out, plunging the entire sector into pitch-black darkness. Around me, the guards screamed as their tactical visors and advanced armor short-circuited, freezing them in place like heavy stone statues.

"My screen! The data loop is gone!" the Director yelled in the dark. I could hear her boots scratching against the wood just a few feet away. "Thorne, what did you do?"

I pushed myself up, my heart beating with a wild, vengeful rhythm. The blue data lines on my skin were tingling, drinking in the loose static floating in the air. My father hadn't tried to kill me. He had reset the board.

"I didn't do anything," I whispered into the dark, locating her voice. "My dad did."

Sarah

We were just bursting through the back service doors of the conservatory when the world went black. The sudden silence was terrifying. The hum of the city’s power grid just stopped.

"The tracker died!" Jax shouted, slamming his hand against his dead digital pad. "The whole grid just took a massive hit!"

"Look up," I breathed, holding Lily’s hand tightly.

Through the shadows of the hallway, we could see the main auditorium. It looked like a giant cavern. The only illumination came from the moonlight pouring through the glass dome above.

"Marcus is in there," I said, my chest tight with fear. "Jax, use Julian’s switch!"

"The pulse might have fried it," Jax muttered, his fingers fumbling with the black cylinder in his pocket. He slammed the violet button. A tiny, faint purple light blinked to life on the side. "No, it’s shielded! It’s still running!"

"Then we move now," I said, pulling a heavy iron wrench from my belt. The anger from losing Julian was still a hot stone in my throat. I wanted to see this through. I wanted our lives back.

We ran into the main hall, our footsteps echoing loudly in the empty space.

Marcus

I lunged through the dark stage, my hands reaching out until they caught the fabric of the Director’s jacket. She gasped, trying to bring her pistol up, but I grabbed her wrist. Without her high-tech armor enhancements, she was just an ordinary woman.

"Give me the master controller," I growled, twisting her arm until she dropped the gun. It hit the wood with a dull thud.

"You think you've won, Marcus?" she hissed, her breath hot against my face as she struggled against my grip. "You think destroying my sector fixes anything? Mason is still out there. The Board has backups. You are just a broken boy playing with a toy!"

"I'm the boy who is going to finish this," I said.

I slammed her down onto the stage floor, pinning her shoulders. I reached into her pockets, my fingers wrapping around the sleek silver controller. The screen was dead from the EMP, but the physical backup drive was still slotted into the side. The drive held the names of every single corporate leader who had funded the Reaping system. It was the list of the people who paid for my father's murder.

"Marcus!" Sarah’s voice echoed from the aisle.

I looked up, seeing her silhouette rushing toward the stage, with Jax and Lily right behind her. Relief washed over me so fast my knees went weak. They were alive. Julian had held the structure long enough for them to escape.

"I got it!" I yelled back, holding up the silver controller. "I have the names!"

But my victory lasted less than a single heartbeat.

From the high glass dome above, a heavy steel cable dropped straight down through the center of the auditorium. Before Jax could even raise his weapon, a flash bang grenade tumbled down the line, hitting the stage floor right between us.

A blinding white light exploded in my eyes, accompanied by a sound so loud it felt like a physical punch to my brain.

I screamed, dropping the controller as I clutched my ears. I fell sideways, my vision swimming in a sea of pure white. Through the high-pitched ringing in my ears, I heard the sound of heavy leather boots hitting the stage wood with a solid, confident rhythm.

A strong hand grabbed me by the back of my neck, hauling me off the floor with zero effort. The smell of expensive cologne and gun oil filled my nose.

It was Mason. He hadn't run away. He had followed the Director's transport from the skies.

"Thank you for opening the vault for me, Director," Mason’s smooth voice cut through the ringing in my ears. I felt the cold barrel of a silencer press firmly against the side of my neck. "And thank you for finding the data, Marcus. I'll take it from here."

Mason has the data, and Marcus has a gun pressed to his neck! With the whole sector blacked out, who can stop the final execution?