Chapter 26
In the subterranean safehouse in Wyoming, Sarah didn't hesitate. She hit the enter key on her primary terminal.
The silver dog tag in Hayes’s hand didn't contain the microdot. It contained a highly concentrated, localized EMP charge hidden within the hollowed-out casing.
The tag detonated with a blinding, silent burst of electromagnetic energy.
The mechanical bay plunged into absolute, pitch-black darkness. The massive antenna gears ground to a violent halt. The automated security doors sealed shut, and the night-vision optics of the Lazarus operatives instantly fried, blinding them completely.
"What happened?!" Hayes shrieked in the dark, dropping the ruined tag.
"The lights went out, Hayes," Cole’s voice echoed chillingly in the blackness.
Cole didn't need night vision. He had memorized the exact spatial geometry of the room before the EMP triggered. He moved with explosive, terrifying speed.
He didn't fire his weapon; the muzzle flash would give away his position. He drew his ceramic combat knife.
The darkness became a slaughterhouse.
Cole moved like a phantom, systematically dismantling the elite Lazarus operatives with brutal, silent efficiency. He slipped beneath sweeping rifle barrels, executing flawless joint locks and lethal strikes to unprotected arteries. The mercenaries fired blindly, panicking as their squadmates collapsed without a sound.
"Hold your fire!" Hayes screamed, terrified of being hit by his own men in the dark.
Within thirty seconds, the ten elite operators were dead on the metal grating.
The emergency red backup lights finally flickered on, casting the mechanical bay in a sinister, bloody glow.
Cole stood in the center of the room, his knife dripping, his chest heaving. He looked at Hayes, who was scrambling backward toward the heavy steel doors leading to the elevator shaft.
"You can't win, Bennett!" Hayes yelled, drawing a sidearm. "My men in Wyoming..."
"Your men in Wyoming are currently being dismantled by Master Sergeant Donovan," Cole interrupted coldly. "I didn't send her back to hide. I sent her back to set a trap."
Thousands of miles away, the quiet suburban street in Wyoming erupted into violence. Donovan, positioned in the attic of a neighboring house with a suppressed sniper rifle, systematically eliminated the four mercenaries surrounding Sarah, Ava, and Nora before they even realized they were under attack.
"The perimeter is clear, Boss," Donovan’s voice reported over the encrypted, EMP-shielded comms in Cole’s ear. "The family is secure."
"Copy that," Cole said, his gray eyes locking onto Hayes.
"It's over, Hayes," Cole stated, taking a slow step forward. "The antenna is dead. The uplink failed. The network is offline."
"I am not going back to a cell, Cole!" Hayes roared, raising his pistol and firing wildly.
Cole didn't flinch. He dove behind a thick hydraulic strut as the bullets sparked against the steel. He didn't return fire. He reached down to his tactical belt, pulling the detonator for the C4 charges he had planted earlier.
May you like
"You don't have to go back to a cell, Hayes," Cole whispered into the silence.
He pressed the button.
