Chapter 13 - The Frequency of Betrayal
The brute lunged.
It struck the electrified bars with a wet thud. Blue lightning erupted across its torso, charring the pale, wet flesh to black ash, but the creature did not scream. It possessed no vocal cords, only the mechanical intake valve in its throat. With hands that ended in surgically grafted steel hooks, it began tearing at the iron bars, bending the electrified metal with impossible hydraulic leverage.
Inside the cage, Isabel scrambled backward through the shallow green brine. Her Colt lay three yards beyond her reach, resting against Halden’s polished boot. She reached into her boot lining, her fingers closing around the bone-handled hunting knife she had kept hidden since the crossing at Dead Horse Pass.
"Halden, wait," Elena’s raspy voice suddenly cut through the drone of machinery. The old woman had frozen at the control panel, her sightless gaze snapping toward the far wall. "The pressure manifold in the lower core... it’s dropping. You didn't divert the cooling lines to the incubation array."
Halden did not turn. His gaze remained locked on Isabel. "A necessary sacrifice, Elena. Did you truly believe there was room for two architects at the threshold of the new era?"
Elena’s weathered mouth fell open. "You swore the serum would stabilize us both. You swore the signal would preserve the lineage!"
"The signal requires a singular transmitter and an obedient flock," Halden replied quietly, without an ounce of malice—only the terrifying indifference of an engineer discarding a broken gear. "You were brilliant forty years ago, Elena. But your flesh is rotting. Your eyes are gone. You have outlived your utility to the Mesa."
He pulled a small silver transmitter from his waistcoat and pressed the thumb-switch.
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The brass collar around Elena’s neck detonated with a sharp, muffled crack. The old woman stiffened, a choked gasp catching in her throat, before she collapsed across the brass dials of the master switchboard. Her spasming hands dragged down three primary breaker switches as she fell.
The hum of the electric cage died instantly.
