Before Olga or Cross could react, Victor Kaelen’s hands flew across the command center’s primary console. He didn't lock the doors. He triggered the command center’s emergency quarantine protocol.
Thick, transparent blast shields slammed down over the windows, and a heavy titanium partition instantly separated the command room from the stairwell leading down to the Apex Engine. Olga, Natalia, and Cross were sealed inside the glass box.
Victor stood on the outside of the partition, on the stairwell landing, offering a cold, patronizing smile through the reinforced glass.
"You really are a brilliant auditor, Olga," Victor said through the intercom, his pale eyes gleaming with absolute greed. "But you forgot the golden rule of business. Never trust a rival. You brought me here to bypass Richard’s architectural locks. But you failed to realize that I built the original framework. I don't need Richard. I don't need you. I am going to walk down those stairs, kill your uncle, and take the Apex Engine for myself."
"Victor, you can't!" Olga shouted, slamming her fist against the glass. "The system requires a dual biometric signature! You can't authorize the Genesis broadcast without my DNA!"
Victor chuckled darkly. "I don't need to broadcast the Genesis Protocol, Olga. I am going to isolate the financial sectors of the algorithm, transfer Vanguard's entire trillion-dollar asset portfolio into my offshore accounts, and let Richard’s famine program burn the world. I will be the wealthiest king of a starving planet."
He turned his back on them and began descending the metal stairs toward the glowing blue core.
Cross raised his rifle and fired a burst at the glass, but the armor-piercing rounds merely spider-webbed the surface. The glass was rated to withstand a direct missile strike.
"He played us," Cross cursed, dropping the empty magazine. "We're trapped in an observation deck while two billionaires fight over the apocalypse."
"No," Natalia said quietly, stepping up to the shattered console Victor had just used. "Victor thinks he locked the system, but he used standard Vanguard security architecture. He doesn't know that my biometric signature is hardcoded into the facility's root access."
Natalia sliced her palm with her combat blade and pressed her bleeding hand directly onto the exposed circuitry of the console. The bio-hacked clone bypassed the software entirely, interfacing with the raw hardware.
The heavy titanium partition hissed and violently retracted.
"Let's go audit a billionaire," Olga said, racking the slide of her pistol.
They sprinted down the metal stairwell, descending into the heart of the quantum dome. Below them, a massive firefight had already broken out. Victor had managed to hijack one of Richard's automated defense turrets and was laying down devastating suppressive fire against Richard's elite guards.
Richard Vance stood behind the Apex Engine, screaming orders, his pristine suit finally rumpled and stained with soot.
Olga didn't engage the guards. She kept her eyes locked on the prize. The manual override terminal at the base of the Apex Engine.
"Cover me!" Olga yelled to Cross and Natalia.
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She dove off the final flight of stairs, sliding across the polished black stone floor, dodging a spray of bullets from Victor’s turret. She reached the base of the massive, humming quantum machine.
👉 But as she reached out to grab the override lever, Richard Vance stepped out from behind the servers, aiming a massive, experimental directed-energy weapon directly at her chest.
The experimental directed-energy weapon in Richard Vance’s hands hummed with a terrifying, high-pitched whine. The barrel glowed with blinding, concentrated violet light.
"I really hoped we could do this as a family, Olga," Richard sneered, his finger tightening on the trigger. "But you leave me no choice."
Before Richard could fire, Natalia moved with blinding, impossible speed. She tackled Olga out of the weapon’s path just as Richard pulled the trigger.
A silent, concussive beam of pure kinetic energy erupted from the barrel, striking the heavy titanium stairwell behind them. The metal didn't melt; it shattered like glass, the sheer force of the impact disintegrating the structure.
"Get to the terminal!" Natalia shouted, rolling to her feet and drawing her combat blade. She charged directly at Richard, her bio-hacked reflexes dodging a second energy blast by mere millimeters.
Olga scrambled toward the override terminal. Above the chaos, Victor Kaelen was screaming in rage as his hijacked turret ran out of ammunition. Commander Cross was pinned down behind a server rack, returning fire against Richard’s remaining mercenaries.
Olga reached the terminal. The screen was locked, displaying a massive, blinking prompt: DUAL BIOMETRIC AUTHORIZATION REQUIRED FOR PURGE.
"Natalia! I need your hand!" Olga screamed over the deafening gunfire.
Natalia was locked in brutal hand-to-hand combat with Richard. The billionaire uncle was surprisingly skilled, using the heavy energy rifle as a quarterstaff to block Natalia’s lethal strikes. But he was losing ground to the younger, genetically engineered assassin.
Hearing Olga, Natalia ruthlessly disarmed Richard, kicking the energy rifle across the floor. She delivered a devastating spin-kick to his chest, sending him crashing into the server racks, and sprinted toward Olga.
They stood in front of the glowing terminal.
"Place your hand on the glass," Olga commanded, placing her own bleeding hand on the left scanner.
Natalia placed her hand on the right scanner.
Processing... Match 100%: Olga Rostova. Processing... Match 100%: Natalia Vance.
The massive screens above the Apex Engine turned from blue to blood red.
SYSTEM PURGE INITIATED. CORE MELTDOWN IN 60 SECONDS.
Richard Vance crawled out from the debris, blood pouring from his nose, staring at the red screens in absolute horror. "You fools! You’re destroying the only machine capable of stabilizing the climate algorithms! You’ve doomed yourselves!"