Chapter 43 - The Return to the Ruins
Evelyn threw Sterling back against the metal bulkheads. Her jaw was set in granite. She didn't hesitate for a single second.
"Pilot, hard bank one-eighty," she commanded. "We are going back in."
"Commander," the pilot cautioned, "the airspace over the ridge is compromised. A seismic bunker-buster will trigger a localized cave-in within eight minutes. If we drop into that crater, we may never climb back out."
"We go back," Evelyn repeated, her tone leaving no room for insubordination. "If the Consortium breaches the outer seal of Vault Zero with high explosives, the fail-safe protocol will detonate the dirty core beneath the bedrock. Half of Pennsylvania will become an uninhabitable dead zone before sunrise. Arthur built that fail-safe to keep monsters out, but he trusted us to disarm it."
She looked directly at me.
"Julian. You have the key. But to deactivate the core, you have to place that cylinder into the primary console at the bedrock level before the countdown reaches zero."
"And if I can't?" I asked, the weight of the titanium cylinder feeling like lead in my hands.
"Then your grandfather's house won't just be your grave," she said softly. "It will be the tomb of millions."
The gunship banked violently, its engines screaming as it dove out of the rain clouds and plunged back toward the burning silhouette of Black Ridge. Through the forward cockpit glass, the horror of the scene unfolded.
The farmhouse was gone.
A massive kinetic charge had detonated right through the center of the roof and the stone hearth, blowing the antique timber walls outward into a crater of flaming debris. In place of Grandpa Arthur's cozy study was a yawning black abyss sixty feet wide, surrounded by the charred remnants of stone masonry.
Hovering over the smoking crater were two heavy-lift industrial assault helicopters, deploying tactical cables straight down into the smoking hole. Mercenaries in high-threat hazard gear were already descending into the depths.
"Prepare for combat drop!" Evelyn shouted, strapping on her assault rifle and racking the charging handle with a sharp, metallic snap. "Operators, lethal force authorized on all unverified personnel! Secure the shaft!"
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The gunship leveled out fifty feet above the flaming crater. The cargo doors slid back, and the smell of cordite, burning timber, and ancient dust rushed into the cabin.
"Jump!" Evelyn ordered.
