The executives exchanged skeptical glances.
They all knew it was a desperate, thin excuse, but no one dared argue the point any further.
After all, The Commodore had personally intervened.
Forcing the door was their only play.
Kaelen took a deep, grounding breath. When he exhaled, his expression hardened into cold resolve.
He raised a hand toward the armed guards.
A dozen men immediately stepped into formation, weapons drawn and locked on the entrance.
With The Commodore watching closely, they had to be prepared for anything. If the woman was cornered, she might strike back.
Kaelen snapped his gaze back to Toby. "Use the Overlord Override Key. Breach the door. Now."
Toby flinched. Not daring to delay a second longer, he jammed his clearance card into the slot and punched in the alpha-numeric bypass sequence.
The pulsing green indicator beside the door instantly flashed a glaring, aggressive red.
[Overlord Override Key Accepted.]
[Forced Entry Sequence Initiated.]
[Emergency Shutdown Protocol triggering in ten seconds.]
The mechanized voice echoed down the sterile hallway.
[Overlord Override Key actively bypassing lockdown.]
[Five.]
[Four.]
[Three.] [Two-]
As the countdown dropped, the warning strobes above the door began to flash frantically.
The harsh crimson light washed over their tense, panicked faces in rhythmic pulses.
Toby stared fixedly at his terminal.
The executives held their breath.
The guards braced themselves, fingers hovering dangerously close to the triggers of their rifles.
The corridor fell dead silent, saved only by the automated voice and the heavy, ragged breathing of the men.
Right as the system was about to tick down to the final second.
Beep.
A crisp chime sliced through the tension.
The automated countdown abruptly cut off.
Everyone froze, blinking in stunned silence at the door.
The blinding red strobes died instantly.
Toby was dumbfounded.
Kaelen was just as paralyzed.
"What just happened?"
No one had an answer.
The heavy clunk of manual override sounded from the other side of the barricade.
Under the watchful gaze of over a dozen men, the heavy blast doors slowly slid apart.
The harsh, clinical white light from the lab spilled into the hallway.
A slender silhouette stood backlit by the glow.
Serena stood casually, one hand tucked into the pocket of her pristine white coat, the other loosely holding,
a glass vial.
Inside the slender tube, a shimmering, liquid silver swirled gently under the light.
It caught the overhead beams, refracting a mesmerizing, icy luminescence.
Her striking, pale features carried the heavy shadow of exhaustion.
Her dark lashes fluttered halfway shut.
She looked exactly like a woman who had just poured her soul into an excruciatingly complex synthesis.
But as
guar Stunning, glacial eyes
swept over the barrage of armed et
guards, they narrowed into a sharp glare.
The exhaustion instantly gave way to a predatory, chilling hostility.
She did much as flinch at the sight of the tactical rifles, her gazet
merely ghosting over
osting over the dark
muzzles aimed at her chest content
Her eyes finally landed on the ashen face of Director Kaelen.
She tilted her head, a slow, dangerously wicked smirk curving her lips. "Well?"
"Is this the new protocol for Project Zero-Transit?"
"Tearing down the walls while a master is at work?"