Page 421 of Scars of Fate

Roth froze.

“I’m here.”

“I know.”

“I’m coming for you.”

Elena looked toward the dispersal unit.

“No.”

“Don’t ask me to leave you.”

“Stop the weapon.”

“I can do both.”

“You don’t have time.”

Roth’s hand shook around his gun.

“Listen to me,” Elena said. “Whatever happens, you stop Kane.”

The timer reached fifty seconds.

I stared at the controls.

Kane wanted us rushing.

Afraid.

Desperate.

Project Fate had been built around predicting what terrified people would do when time disappeared.

But Kane had made one mistake.

He had shown us all three choices.

I moved closer to the panel.

A shield containing two intertwined circles appeared above the first position.

Two circles divided by a straight line marked the second.

A sword marked the third.

“The symbols were part of the original panel,” I said.

Hawk looked at me.

“How do you know?”

“Dr. Arslan built Aegis to protect civilians. He used the shield containing the intertwined circles as its symbol throughout the quarantine tunnel.”

“Yes.”

“Kane changed the written labels. He didn’t replace the original controls.”