Page 417 of Scars of Fate

“Is she alive?”

“For another two minutes and forty seconds.”

Roth struck Minser across the face.

He fell against the terminal.

Adam grabbed Roth before he could hit him again.

“We need him conscious.”

“I need Elena alive.”

“So do I.”

Hawk took the original tag from Minser and handed it to me.

The metal warmed against my palm.

The system recognized the physical key.

Ghost’s duplicate wafer had served its purpose when Wynn and I activated Aegis from the aircraft.

Only the original could initiate the permanent failsafe.

I removed the encrypted drive from beneath my vest.

Hawk approached the central chamber.

“Wait.”

He examined the controls.

“What?” Adam asked.

“There are three authorization positions.”

The first bore a shield containing two intertwined circles.

Aegis.

The second displayed two circles divided by a straight line.

Fate.

The third showed a sword.

Meridian.

But the printed labels beneath them contradicted the symbols.

The Aegis shield had been marked FATE.

The divided circles had been marked AEGIS.

The sword read MERIDIAN CONTINUITY.

“Kane altered the labels,” Wynn said.