"Is Bennett with you?"
James lowered his voice.
"Yes. And he says we need to leave the building immediately."
"Why?"
"Because someone just activated the containment system."
Victoria's face changed.
She snatched the radio from Nathan's hand.
"James, listen to me. Do not touch anything in that corridor."
"Who is this?"
"Victoria Bennett."
There was silence.
Then another voice came through the radio.
A man's voice.
"Hello, Victoria."
She went rigid.
"Christopher."
"Still trying to bury your mistakes?"
Her breathing became shallow.
"You shouldn't have come back."
"I didn't have a choice."
"You're going to get us all killed."
Christopher's response was cold.
"Then perhaps you should tell Nathan what happened to the other eleven people."
Nathan stared at her.
"What eleven people?"
Victoria looked away.
Christopher continued.
"Ask her about the first AURORA demonstration. Ask her why the research team disappeared. And ask her who authorized the destruction of the evidence."
The radio suddenly emitted a piercing tone.
Then a computerized voice announced:
CONTAINMENT SEQUENCE INITIATED.
LEVEL B3 SEALED.
PURGE CYCLE BEGINS IN NINETY SECONDS.
Victoria dropped the radio.
Nathan grabbed her shoulders.
"What does purge mean?"
She looked at him with naked fear.
"It means they're going to erase everything on that level."
"Including James?"
She didn't answer.
Nathan pushed past her and ran toward the door.
"Nathan, stop!"
He kept moving.
Behind him, Victoria shouted:
"Once the purge begins, nothing living will survive!"
But Nathan was already running toward the emergency stairwell.
And on the lowest level of Sterling Global Industries, the countdown had begun.
The emergency stairwell smelled of damp concrete and industrial disinfectant.
Nathan took the steps two at a time.
His radio continued emitting distorted fragments of the automated warning.
Seventy-four seconds.
He reached Level B2 and nearly collided with a maintenance worker emerging from a side corridor.
The man stumbled backward.
"Hey! What's happening?"
"Get out of the building!" Nathan shouted.
"Why?"
"Just go!"
Nathan continued downward.
At the final landing, he found the heavy steel door leading to B3.
A red light blinked above the access panel.
RESTRICTED—EMERGENCY LOCKDOWN.
He swiped his security badge.
Access denied.
He tried again.
Nothing.
Sixty-one seconds.
Nathan slammed his fist against the door.
"James!"
No response.
He pressed his radio transmitter.
"James, can you hear me?"
Static.
Then a voice.
"Brooks."
Nathan froze.
It wasn't James.
"Who is this?"
"Christopher Bennett."
Nathan stared at the locked door.
"How do I get you out?"
"There's an emergency release beneath the access panel."
Nathan dropped to one knee.
He found a narrow metal cover secured by two screws.
"No tools."
"Use your badge."
Nathan wedged the edge of his security card beneath the cover and pulled.
The plastic bent.
He pulled harder.
The cover snapped free.
Inside was a small mechanical lever.
"Got it."
"Pull it down and hold it."
Nathan obeyed.
The lock disengaged with a metallic thud.
He yanked the door open.
James Mitchell stumbled through first.
Blood ran from a cut above his eyebrow.
Behind him came a tall man in a dark coat.
Christopher Bennett.
Nathan recognized him immediately from the enormous portrait hanging in the company's executive lobby.
The resemblance was unmistakable.
But the man standing before him looked older than the photograph.
His cheeks were hollow. A pale scar extended from beneath his left ear toward his collar. His eyes possessed the exhausted intensity of someone who had spent months surviving on little more than determination.
"Move," Christopher ordered.
Forty-eight seconds.
The three men rushed up the stairs.
Nathan heard a deep mechanical rumble beneath them.
"What is that?"
Christopher didn't slow down.
"Atmospheric displacement system."
"In English!"
"They're going to remove the oxygen from the sealed section and flood it with a reactive compound. The process destroys biological traces and destabilizes certain materials."
Nathan felt sick.
"That sounds insane."
"It was never designed for use in an occupied building."
They reached B2.
James leaned against the wall, struggling for breath.
Christopher grabbed his arm.
"Keep moving."
Thirty-one seconds.
Nathan heard the heavy door below them slam shut.
A series of metallic bolts engaged.
Then the rumbling intensified.
They reached B1.
Christopher stopped abruptly.
Nathan nearly ran into him.
"What?"
Christopher pointed toward the corridor ahead.
Two men wearing black tactical uniforms stood beside the stairwell exit.
Neither wore a company security badge.
One carried a compact firearm.
The other held a tablet.
"Mr. Bennett," the armed man said calmly.
Christopher stepped in front of Nathan and James.
"You're late."
The man smiled.
"Actually, sir, we're exactly on schedule."
Nathan's heart pounded.
The second man glanced at his tablet.
"Twenty seconds."
Christopher slowly raised his hands.
"Who sent you?"
"You already know."
"Tell him I'm willing to negotiate."
The armed man shook his head.
"Negotiations ended when you entered the building."
Nathan noticed something unusual.
The two men weren't looking at Christopher's hands.
They were watching the small black device clipped beneath his coat.
Christopher noticed their attention.
And smiled.
"You still don't understand what I brought back, do you?"
The armed man's expression tightened.
"Remove the device."
Christopher didn't move.
"Remove it now."
Instead, Christopher pressed a concealed switch.
The corridor lights went out.
A deafening electronic shriek filled the stairwell.
Nathan dropped instinctively.
A gunshot cracked above his head.
Then another.
Someone shouted.
James grabbed Nathan's collar and dragged him behind the concrete wall.
"Stay down!"
A third gunshot echoed.
Then silence.
Emergency lighting flickered on.
The two tactical men lay unconscious on the floor.
Christopher stood above them, holding a small cylindrical device.
Nathan stared.
"What did you do?"
"Disrupted their nervous-system interfaces."
"Their what?"
Christopher crouched beside one of the men and pulled back his collar.
Beneath the skin near the base of his neck was a faint circular mark.
"Neural-linked equipment. Experimental."
Nathan shook his head.
"You're telling me these people have computers in their heads?"
"I'm telling you Sterling Global stopped being an ordinary technology company a long time ago."
A distant boom shook the stairwell.
Dust drifted from the ceiling.
The purge had begun.
Christopher checked his watch.
"We have to leave."
Nathan looked toward the unconscious men.
"What about them?"
"They'll recover."
"How do you know?"
"Because I designed the system."
For the first time, Nathan understood that Christopher Bennett wasn't merely a victim of whatever conspiracy had overtaken Sterling Global.
He had helped create the machinery behind it.
They emerged into the service corridor near the building's western loading dock.
Outside, rain struck the pavement.
A delivery truck idled beside the exit.
Christopher stopped.
His expression darkened.