The voice returned over the speakers.

  "Emergency lockdown mode initiated."

  The words reverberated across the conference room like a verdict. Then came the noise.

  A deep metallic clang thundered somewhere beyond the walls. A moment later another followed. And another. The expressions in the room shifted almost instantly. Relief drained from their faces, replaced by despair.

  "That's not supposed to happen," Caitlin said quietly, voice carrying just enough for me to hear.

  Her eyes had drifted away from the room, staring somewhere past the far wall. I could almost see the gears turning in her head.

  "What's not supposed to happen?"

  She didn't answer.

  "Vance!"

  My voice cracked across the room. She flinched slightly and looked back at me.

  "What's not supposed to happen?" I repeated.

  "This," she said, gesturing vaguely upward. "The facility just entered lockdown mode."

  Her voice steadied as she continued. "All entrances and exits are sealed. External access points are shut. No one comes in. No one leaves."

  Before I could respond, Bran's voice came through the channel.

  "Stretch, what the hell just happened in there?"

  Confusion bled through his tone. I tapped the mic.

  "I don't know yet," I said. "Looks like some kind of defensive protocol. What's the status outside?"

  "Backup just arrived," Bran replied. "We were about to request breach clearance. Then the building sealed itself."

  "How does it look?"

  "Bad," he said bluntly. "Some kind of solid plating just dropped over everything. Windows, doors, ventilation grates. Everything's covered. Looks thick."

  This just kept getting better.

  "Get the cutters," I ordered. "Try to make an entry."

  "Already working on it."

  Caitlin shook her head beside me.

  "It won't work."

  I ignored her and continued. "Call in a cyber team. I want someone trying to break into the facility network. If there's a central system controlling this lockdown, we need access to it. See if they can tap into surveillance feeds."

  "Yes sir."

  "That won't work either," Caitlin said. Her tone had sharpened.

  I cut the transmission. "What do you mean it won't work?"

  She crossed her arms unconsciously. A defensive posture.

  "The system here isn't standard security," she said. "It's designed for extreme doomsday scenarios."

  "Meaning?"

  "The exterior barriers are practically impenetrable. Fifteen layers of reinforced CMC designed for energy absorption, damage deflection and self-repair."

  I stared at her.

  "Even with high end industrial cutters, it would take at least a day to do any permanent damage. And that's assuming they don't trigger additional countermeasures."

  "And the network?" I asked.

  "Closed architecture," she replied immediately. "A perfect self-contained system. No possibility of foreign access."

  Silence lingered between us for a moment.

  "So how can we disable the barriers?"

  "There's a control station on the lowest basement level," she said. "Manual override."

  "And who has access?"

  "Two people."

  "Let me guess," I said.

  She nodded faintly. "The director… and me."

  "Where is the director?"

  There was a subtle hint of sadness in her expression. "He was taken away before they locked us here."

  Another piece of the puzzle. One I didn't have time to examine yet.

  Lydia."

  She turned away from the doorway she had been covering. I checked the time on my visor display. 05:19. We had been inside the building for fifteen minutes. It felt like an hour.

  "Seems like an appropriate moment to release the scouts. Scour the whole building. Let's find out what we're up against."

  "Yes sir."

  She slung her rifle across her chest and crouched, pulling her pack forward. From it she removed a compact black case with sharp, angular edges. The lid opened with a soft click. Inside rested twelve small egg-shaped devices, each about the size of a fist. At the top half of the case sat a screen.

  Lydia rotated her wrist, activating them from the control pad attached to her forearm. Blue lines of light threaded across the surfaces of the scouts as they powered on. A faint hum filled the air. One by one, the devices lifted from their slots and hovered above the case.

  The screen flashed on. Twelve windows appeared. Each showing a different camera feed. All of them currently pointed directly at Lydia's face from uncomfortable proximity. She ignored it and began issuing commands through the pad. The humming deepened.

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  The drones shifted position, forming a narrow line in midair. Then they glided toward the doorway. One by one, they slipped into the hallway beyond.

  "We are go for reconnaissance," Lydia said without looking up, her eyes fixed on the screen.

  "Excellent."

  I looked back to Caitlin. "Now where were we?"

  The first part of Caitlin's story lined up with what Brittney had said.

  "A memo went out this morning," Caitlin said, her voice still unsteady. "To everyone in the Pharmacology department. They were called to a meeting on the second floor."

  Her fingers were wrapped tightly around each other, knuckles pale.

  "I think… I think that's when it happened."

  I nodded.

  "Luckily someone saw them," she continued. "One of the staff members coming back from storage. He saw their weapons. He ran through the building shouting that there were armed men inside."

  She shook her head slowly.

  "It didn't make sense. They weren't on the surveillance feeds. Security didn't even know anyone had entered the building until people started panicking."

  I let my eyes wander across the room while she spoke. Twenty people packed together. Lab coats. Matching slacks and shirts. Faces drained of color. The whole situation had the stink of an inside job.

  Caitlin took a breath and continued. "I followed protocol immediately. I told everyone to activate their panic buttons so the marshals would be alerted."

  She gave a small, humorless laugh.

  "They were all disabled. So we moved to the next step. Evacuation. But they were already waiting at the exits. Every one of them. We didn't stand a chance."

  I cleared my throat. "I am aware none of you managed to leave the building," I said. "I also know that there should be around thirty other employees present. Where are they?"

  She frowned slightly. "I don't know. I don't think they were caught. They're probably in the safe room."

  Huh?

  "You have a safe room?"

  "Yes," she replied. "A very good one."

  That earned a long pause from me.

  This 'small research facility' just suffered a coordinated armed assault, had top of the line, impenetrable defenses and even a safe room. None of this was normal. Not even close. I pushed the thought aside for the moment.

  "You said the group here knew about the attackers before being captured."

  "Yes."

  "We only received one call for help. Why?"

  Caitlin gestured weakly toward the room. "We aren't allowed personal effects during work hours. Phones, devices, even food. We have to buy from the cafeteria."

  I glanced around again. The uniforms made more sense now.

  "As you probably noticed," she said, "we all wear identical work attire. It's part of the policy."

  "The only exception to that rule," she continued, "is the director. And he was the first to be captured."

  She raised a hand and pointed across the room. My eyes followed her finger. The woman with both broken legs lay against the wall where Mous had placed her. She was sedated now, breathing slowly. Medical foam wrapped both limbs from thigh to ankle

  "Ainsley," she said, with a faint tired smile. "Had somehow managed to sneak her phone past our sensors. She's a habitual rule breaker. Normally she would've been sanctioned for it. But today…"

  Her voice wavered.

  "…today we probably owe her our lives."

  I looked at the unconscious woman again. First she had made the call that brought us here. Then the smell of her urine had led me straight to this room. Strange how life worked.

  Caitlin swallowed and continued.

  "They broke the first leg to punish her," she said quietly. "Forced her to withdraw the call. Said if she didn't, they'd start killing people."

  She blinked hard, fighting back tears.

  "She made the call again. They broke the other leg after that. To make an example."

  I gave her time to regain herself. Across the room Kate suddenly looked up from her pad.

  "Cap," she called. "I've searched this floor and the two above us. Nothing."

  "Keep looking," I replied. "I've been told there's a basement."

  She nodded and returned to her screen. I turned back to Caitlin.

  "So where are they now?" I asked. "The attackers. They just left you all here alone?"

  "After they took the director away, they left two guys with us." she replied, taking in a deep breath. "A few minutes later one of them received a message. He grabbed the receptionist, Brittney, and dragged her out."

  Brittney sat in the corner. Bound. Gagged. Exhausted. Several of the staff avoided even looking at her. Wise. Fraternizing with suspects was a crime.

  "He told her to stall you," Caitlin said. "To make sure you didn't come anywhere near this floor."

  Her hands trembled now. "They were hurting people just to pass the time. Those monsters cut off Jerob's arm just to prove they were serious. Like we needed convincing."

  "Mous," I said, gaze shifting across the room.

  Mous was kneeling beside the injured man. She worked silently, applying a thick layer of sealing gel to the stump where the arm had been severed. When she finished, she wiped her gloves and looked up at me.

  "Unbind the suspect." She gave a lazy thumbs up and stood. Brittney was off the hook for now. After this I would consider her fate.

  "Go on." I said to Caitlin.

  "A little while after she left, he got another message and left the room with his partner. They left in a hurry, not even saying a word to us. It's like they knew you were coming."

  They did.

  Everything I had learned so far pointed in the same direction. They were aware of our positions and movement. Caitlin had said they took the director hostage. That alone would have given them access to the building's surveillance systems. A clearer picture was beginning to form.

  "How many of them did you—"

  "Captain," Lydia cut in. "You have to see this."

  I moved over and crouched beside her. She pointed at a section of the screen. The scout hovered somewhere in the building I hadn't yet seen, but it was nearly identical to the hallways we had already passed through.

  "That's on the opposite side of the building," she clarified.

  It was empty and quiet. There seemed to be nothing of note.

  I frowned. "Why—"

  A blur shot across the screen. I leaned closer. "What was that?"

  "Wait," Lydia said, already tapping commands.

  The feed rewound. She slowed the playback. This time the shape was visible.

  A person.

  Clad in minimal tactical gear, entirely black. Their face was covered by a tight mask or helmet, making any identifying features impossible to see. They were running. And they were running far too fast.

  The figure tore down the corridor with a strange, aggressive gait. Their body leaned forward like a predator. One hand gripped a long blade, closer to a sword than any standard combat knife.

  "They're headed straight for us." Lydia said, confirming my suspicions.

  "How long?"

  "At that speed? About a minute out."

  I looked around the room. Several wounded. One unconscious. Engaging the attacker here would be a disaster.

  "Ms. Vance." I returned to Caitlin. "We can't remain here," I said. "Is there a more secure location in this building?"

  "There's a back room in the director's office." She responded quickly, sensing the urgency in my voice. "Not as secure as the safe room, but much better than here."

  "Good," I said. "We're moving."

  "Fifty seconds out," Lydia announced, already returning the kit to her pack.

  "Everyone," I yelled to grab their attention. "We are evacuating this room immediately. Do not panic. Stay together and follow instructions."

  Despite the order, fear spread through the group instantly. Chairs scraped against the floor as people scrambled to stand. Whispers and frantic voices filled the room.

  "Please remain calm," I said firmly, pointing toward Caitlin. "You will follow Ms. Vance."

  "Forty seconds out!"

  I stepped into the hallway and turned to Caitlin. "I trust there's another route besides the one we used."

  "Yes. There's a stairwell at the end of this corridor."

  "Lead the way."

  Mous began moving the injured, calling on the staff members to assist her.

  "Twenty-five seconds!"

  We weren't going to make it.

  "Lydia, I'm going to stall for time. Make sure everyone is moved to the location."

  Before she could argue, I sprinted down the hall and slipped through the door leading back into the blood-soaked hallway. The smell wasn't as strong. I shut the door behind me. The distant noise of the evacuation echoed faintly through the wall.

  I stepped forward and faced the stairwell door. Then I reached down and unstrapped Trent and Lloyd. They slid free into my hands. I left the pistols in their holsters. I had a sense that this opponent wasn't one that could be stopped from range. A single blade and no firearm? That wasn't your run-of-the-mill fighter.

  Despite everything happening, a strange flicker of excitement surfaced. I had finally gotten my wish. My first real combat engagement with my new weapons. I only hoped it wouldn't be my last.

  A slight tremor ran through one finger. I clenched my fist until it stopped. The footage flashed in my mind. Something about the way they moved felt wrong. The speed alone was unnatural. But it wasn't just speed.

  It was their form. Wild and aggressive. Like a starved beast.

  I could hear them now. Heavy impacts echoed through the stairwell beyond the door. They were practically flying up the steps. I tightened my grip. The pounding grew louder. Closer.

  Silence.

  The footsteps stopped abruptly just beyond the door. My heartbeat hammered in my ears. Two seconds passed. Three. Four.

  The tension stretched so tight it felt like the air itself might snap. A bead of sweat slid down my temple.

  Then the handle turned.