Chapter 9 - PROTOCOL ZERO
The heavy iron portal hissed open, revealing a cramped underground bunker filled with blinking green telemetry screens and racks of black tactical equipment.
Before Captain Hayes could step through behind us, a muffled deafening BOOM shook the tunnel, followed by a shockwave of air that nearly knocked us off our feet.
Through the narrow corridor, three figures clad in dark, non-reflective Syndicate armor burst through the ruined upper hatch. Their red visor lenses glowed like predatory eyes in the dark.
"Target acquired," a synthesized voice crackled through the lead soldier's helmet. "Eliminate the collateral."
Captain Hayes didn't hesitate. He raised his weapon and fired three rapid shots, dropping the front assailant into the dust. But the second soldier leveled a high-caliber carbine and opened fire.
Sparks flew off the iron doorway. Hayes took a heavy round to his shoulder, grunting as he staggered backward into the bunker. He slammed his uninjured hand onto the emergency door release.
"Captain!" Clara shrieked as the iron portal began sliding shut.
Hayes looked at us, blood seeping fast through his tactical vest. "Run the rail line to Sector 9... find Marcus Vance..." he coughed out, tossing a brass key ring through the narrowing gap. "Don't let them... take her..."
The iron doors sealed with a heavy, pneumatic thud. A second later, we heard the dull, heavy thuds of bullets hammering uselessly against the reinforced vault steel from the outside.
Then, the floor violently heaved.
The monitors on the walls went dark all at once. A low, subterranean rumble rolled through the deep rock—the sound of the manor above collapsing into a crater of fire and pulverized stone as Protocol Zero detonated.
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Clara fell to her knees on the cold metal floor, burying her face in her hands, her sobs echoing in the small, silent bunker.
I knelt beside her, my small hands wrapping tightly around her arms. I looked down at the brass key ring Captain Hayes had thrown. Attached to it was a tiny silver pendant shaped like a flying bird.
