“The children—”
“They’re getting out.”
He says it firmly.
Confidently.
Like he needs me to believe it.
Ahead of us, figures emerge through the rain along the river access docks.
Russ helping children climb onto the embankment.
Gabriel carrying two at once through waist-deep water.
Lucas still bleeding but refusing to slow down.
Mason covering the rear tunnel exit with his rifle.
The floodwater explodes from the drainage gates behind us like a dam rupture.
And then—
the underground tunnel system collapses.
The sound is enormous.
Concrete cracking beneath the city.
Water consuming everything underground.
Sentinel just lost one of its black sites forever.
Good.
Let it drown.
Clay drags us toward the embankment ladder while thunder shakes the sky overhead.
My body feels numb now.
Cold.
Exhausted.
Broken open emotionally from everything I’ve remembered tonight.
Then the words come back.
You were meant to lead it.
The panic hits instantly.
I stop climbing.
Clay notices immediately.
“Hannah?”
