Neither of us mentions it.
Gabriel steps beside me quietly.
“We’ll get the children out first.”
I nod slowly.
But my eyes drift toward the doctor standing between Russ and Mason.
Bloodied.
Silent.
Watching me again.
Always watching me.
And suddenly—
I realize something terrifying.
She isn’t afraid of Wu dying.
She’s afraid of something else.
Something bigger.
Then the doctor whispers softly:
“You still don’t understand what Hannah was designed to become.”
And somewhere behind the sealed blast doors—
an alarm begins counting down.
52
Clay
The alarm starts as a low mechanical pulse beneath the tunnels.
Then a computerized voice echoes through hidden speakers in Romanian.
Gabriel’s face drains instantly.
“Oh no.”
Russ looks sharply toward him.
“What did it say?”
Gabriel turns slowly.
“Tunnel purge.”
Every muscle in my body locks.
“What the hell is a tunnel purge?”
