Chapter 50
The glass groaned and spider-webbed under Cole’s relentless, furious assault, but it refused to shatter. The Warden watched with a cold, aristocratic sneer, checking the progress bar on the massive centrifuge monitor.
"Ninety-eight percent," the Warden announced softly. "The new world is almost born."
Cole swung the rifle again, his muscles screaming in protest, blood dripping from his knuckles. "Donovan! Give me the heavy ordinance!"
"Boss, it'll trigger the purge!" Donovan yelled, lowering her weapon.
"I don't care! We have to break the glass!" Ava screamed, joining Cole and beating her fists against the impenetrable barrier.
Inside the lab, the centrifuge hummed loudly. The progress bar hit one hundred percent.
A bright green light illuminated the control console.
"Sequence mapped," the Warden smiled triumphantly, ejecting a small, glowing vial of blood and data from the machine. "Thank you for your cooperation, Nora."
The Warden didn't bother unstrapping the child. He turned his back on them, walking toward a heavy steel escape hatch at the rear of the laboratory.
"He's leaving!" Ava cried out.
Cole dropped the ruined rifle. He didn't have heavy explosives. He didn't have a hack. But he had observed the architectural layout of the facility.
"Sarah!" Cole roared into the comms. "The main geothermal heating vents! Are they connected to the lab's exhaust system?!"
"Yes, but they are heavily regulated!" Sarah replied frantically.
"Over-pressurize the vents! Blow the exhaust seals!" Cole commanded.
"It will superheat the room, Cole! It could cook her!"
"Do it!" Cole ordered.
Deep within the facility, Sarah bypassed the safety regulations, forcing the massive geothermal heaters to maximum capacity.
Inside the laboratory, the heavy metal exhaust grates near the ceiling suddenly exploded outward with a deafening screech. A massive, high-pressure geyser of superheated steam blasted into the room, instantly shattering the delicate atmospheric balance the decontamination protocol relied upon.
The automated system shrieked in confusion, the red warning lights flashing erratically as the sensors failed to register a clean breach.
"The purge protocol is failing!" Sarah shouted. "The doors are unlocking!"
The heavy glass doors hissed open.
Cole didn't wait for the steam to clear. He surged into the sweltering, chaotic laboratory.
The Warden, halfway to the escape hatch, turned in shock.
Cole crossed the room in a blur of terrifying violence. He didn't use a gun. He tackled the Warden brutally against the steel wall, driving his knee into the man's ribs with bone-shattering force.
The glowing vial slipped from the Warden's grasp, rolling across the floor.
"You can't stop the future!" the Warden gasped, drawing a hidden knife.
"I am the future," Cole whispered, grabbing the man's wrist, twisting it violently until the knife dropped, and delivering a devastating, fatal blow to the Warden's throat.
The architect of the Omega Vault collapsed, dead instantly.
Cole didn't look at the body. He sprinted back to the center of the room, where Ava was frantically unstrapping a coughing, terrified Nora from the medical chair.
"I've got you," Ava wept, crushing the little girl against her chest.
Cole picked up the glowing vial from the floor. He stared at it for a long moment—the weapon that had cost so much blood.
He didn't crush it. He slipped it into his tactical vest.
"We need to move, Boss!" Donovan yelled from the doorway. "The geothermal overload is causing a structural cascade! The facility is collapsing!"
"Let's go home," Cole commanded, wrapping his arms around Ava and Nora, guiding them out of the burning laboratory.
They fought their way back to the surface, emerging into the freezing arctic night just as the extraction plane touched down on the ice.
They boarded the aircraft as the subterranean facility violently imploded beneath the permafrost, burying the legacy of the Vanguard forever.
Inside the cabin, the adrenaline finally crashed. Ava held Nora tightly, rocking her to sleep. Cole sat across from them, bruised, bleeding, but entirely at peace. He had protected his family.
But as the plane ascended into the dark sky, Cole’s encrypted radio crackled with a burst of heavy static.
"Ghost-Actual," a distorted, synthetic voice whispered through the comms. "You have the key. But the locks are everywhere. We will find you."
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Cole didn't turn off the radio. He looked out the window into the endless, dark horizon, a cold, terrifying smile touching his lips.
The Omega Vault was destroyed. But the war for the new world had only just begun.
