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Nothing. No one was here.
Had he imagined it? Was this another trick from the Organization? Was this a trap?
Marek glanced out to the hallway. No one jumped out at him. No sound of Hunters. He turned in a wide circle. Nothing. The machines didn’t suddenly spew gunfire or launch a silver net to capture him.
The sirens were getting closer. Less than a block away now.
Marek!Rowan shouted.Time to go.
He slammed his fist on a steel workbench with an infuriated growl. What? What was he missing? He halted before a computer station with neatly stacked file folders and office supplies stored tidily in the stationary basket. His nostrils flared. The scent was strongest here.
Marek!
Red and blue flashing lights lit up the room from the windows overlooking the parking lot.
Shit. He had to go.
With a sinking feeling in his gut like he’d forgotten something important, Marek sprinted out to join his team.
Chapter Two
Shewasgoingtodie. Because of a phone.
Olivia wanted to bang her head against the wall. Of all the times to forget her phone at work, why today?
Minutes ago, she’d been halfway across the building’s lobby, almost out of the door, when she reached for her phone and couldn’t find it. After returning to her lab, she’d found it beneath her desk. The second she’d grabbed it, the lights clicked off. Not her phone lights. No, the ceiling lights in the lab and the hallway.
For a split second, she thought the power went out, until the red emergency lights turned on, bathing everything in its eerie glow. Then the building’s AI announced, “Intruder alert. Intruder alert. Initiating lockdown procedures.”
What’s going on?Click.Oh no, don’t tell me.
She dashed to the door and jiggled the handle. It was locked. She slammed the automatic button. Nothing happened.
She was trapped.
Pounding feet. Someone sprinted past the window. Frantic shouts. Followed by horrified screams.
Bang. Bang. Bang!
She almost jumped out of her skin. Were those gunshots?
Another string of the same popping sound.
Yep, definitely gunshots. Or at least how gunshots sounded on TV.
Her heart lodged in her throat. Her mouth dried. Fear overwhelmed her, eliminating her ability for rational thought.
An instinctive fight and flight response shrieked at her to run, to get out of here, but how? There was only one door to the lab.
Think. Think. Think!
Another shadow jogged past. She plastered herself against the door, making herself invisible from the outside. What had Zylotech’s manual said about the emergency lockdown? The lockdown only initiated if someone tried to force their way past the second security checkpoint at any of the three main entrances.
Or if a security guard activated it.
During lockdown, the elevators stopped working, the stairways could only be entered by someone with fingerprint access, and all the office doors automatically locked.
Had someone broken in? For what?
