Page 330 of Scars of Fate

The screen requested the first encryption key.

Hawk entered the sequence recovered from Wynn’s drive.

For one terrible second, nothing happened.

Then the wafer’s surface warmed beneath the terminal’s reader.

Its encrypted pattern unfolded across the screen.

Tiny characters appeared.

Almost invisible.

The lights inside the medical jet flickered.

Every screen went black.

Then one message appeared.

FATE CUSTODIANS IDENTIFIED.

LUCAS SPENCER.

WYNN SPENCER.

BIOMETRIC CONFIRMATION REQUIRED.

Before either of us could move, a second warning filled the screen.

ACTIVE DEPLOYMENT DETECTED.

LOCATION: GARRISON EIGHTEEN.

DISPERSAL IN: 05:00.

The live feed changed.

A camera beneath the medical ward activated.

A second portable dispersal unit sat inside the bunker’s ventilation system.

General Kane had built another clock into his trap.

And Boone, Russ, and Ghost were already inside.

32

LUCAS

Five minutes.

Boone, Russ, and Ghost were inside a service tunnel beneath a sealed bunker, with a biological weapon counting down below the rescued civilians.

And we were thousands of feet above the Black Sea.

Too far away to fight.

Too far away to help.