Chapter 56 - The Nevada Breach
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I stood frozen in the freezing server room, staring at the screen. The thermal torch cutting through the bunker door in Nevada was almost halfway through the reinforced steel.
"Don't do it, Audrey!" Marcus's voice suddenly crackled through the rig's intercom. The Architect had patched their audio through.
"Dad," I choked out, tears finally breaking free and streaming down my face.
"He's lying to you, Audrey!" Marcus yelled over the deafening roar of the cutting torch on his end. "If you give him the network, he kills us anyway! He can't leave loose ends! You blow that rig! You blow it to hell!"
"Mommy?" Chloe's small, frightened voice came through the speaker. "I'm scared."
"I know, baby, I know," I sobbed, my hands shaking violently.
"Two minutes until breach," the Architect's voice cut back in, cold and detached. "The fate of the world, or the life of your child. A classic philosophical dilemma. Let's see what a mother's love is truly worth."
I looked down at the central console. The glass port was waiting. I unzipped my waterproof bag and pulled out the glowing crystal drive. The timer read: 02:08:45.
Elena groaned from the corner of the room, slowly regaining consciousness. She looked at the monitor, then at me holding the drive.
"Audrey... no," Elena whispered, clutching her bleeding head.
"I can't let them kill her, Elena," I said, my voice hollow. I raised the crystal drive, hovering it directly over the insertion port.
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"Thirty seconds," the Architect reminded me. The steel door on the monitor began to buckle inwards.
I took a deep, shuddering breath, closed my eyes, and slammed the crystal drive into the mainframe port.
