The first subroutine was designed to overwrite the live biometric feed.
The second would silently scrub the pod's recent transit and maintenance logs the moment the connection went live.
As long as he convinced everyone that Specimen Fourteen was suffering a critical rejection event, he could invoke the Red Medical Evacuation Protocol and wheel the pod straight off the stage.
Once it was back in The Med-Tech Quarantine, his people would handle the rest.
His gaze hardened as his fingers flew across the terminal interface.
What he failed to notice was that the moment he reached for the port, Serena's eyes had already flicked away from her screen, landing softly on his hands.
A faint, chilling smile curled the corners of her crimson lips.
*Finally... you made your move.*
...
*BEEP-!*
A shrill alarm sliced through the uproar in the auction hall.
The massive display screen overhead instantly flashed a blinding crimson warning.
[WARNING! WARNING!]
[Target AWS-14 neural rejection index critical.]
[Rejection Severity: Maximum!]
[Recommendation: Terminate appraisal immediately. Initiate Red Medical Evacuation Protocol.]
The blaring alerts strobed across the room.
The previously stable biometric wave spiked violently on the graph in a matter of seconds.
The crowd reeled in panic. "What the hell is going on? What does that mean?!"
Director Silas Kaelen spun around, staring at the screen in absolute horror. "What happened?! The vitals were stable a second ago! Why is it rejecting now?!"
The medical team scrambled, franticly pulling up data logs.
Kaelen looked to Serena in sheer panic. "Ms. Panacea, what's happening?" Serena didn't say a word.
Caleb Thorne immediately seized the moment. "Director Kaelen!" he shouted hisstone laced with expertly feigned urgency. The neural.
fluctuations are off the charts, and the rejection index is still climbing!"
He pointed at the screen, his expression a perfect mask of dread. "I strongly advise terminating the appraisal immediately. We need to move it to the isolation ward right now!"
He pulled up the skyrocketing red graph. "If we don't act, Specimen Fourteen will violently lose control right here on the stage!"
Panic rippled through the VIPs.
Lose control?!
They hadn't forgotten Serena's warning. This thing was a monster-an unstoppable, bulletproof killing machine.
If a beast like that broke loose in a sealed auction hall...
The billionaires who had just been eager to bid millions practically tripped over themselves scrambling backward, letting their bodyguards form a defensive wall. Sweat poured down Director Kaelen's face.
He pressed his earpiece, frantically trying to reach the control room, but The Commodore's channel remained dead silent.
Desperate, he turned back to Serena. "Ms. Panacea, please, what do we—"
"We are out of time!" Thorne
interrupted, his voice tight with
engineered panic. "Look at the rate of decay! In less than sixty seconds, Specimen Fourteen will hit ortical mass!"
"I've already submitted the Red-Tier Emergency Clearance. You need to authorize
the lockdown and let us evacuate the pod right now!"
The other medics gathered around, their faces pale as they stared at the
catastrophic readouts.