Ingrid Hunnigan's smile was as cold and sharp as a shard of ice. She stood there, completely at ease in the sterile room, her arms crossed over her chest, her pistol still resting in its holster. Her confidence wasn't arrogance; it was the absolute certainty of a hunter who had cornered her prey.
"Did you really think you could just sneak in here unnoticed?" she said, her voice dripping with mockery. "Every step you took in that jungle, every bullet you fired, every whispered conversation... we heard it all. Saw it all."
Kael, Gryphon, and Wraith stood in a defensive triangle, their backs to each other, their weapons sweeping between Hunnigan and her two guards. But they knew they were at a disadvantage. No cover. No retreat.
"Oracle," Gryphon growled, the name a curse. "It was her."
"Oh, don't blame poor Anya," Hunnigan smirked. "She's just part of a much larger machine. A machine you've accidentally poked. We should thank you. Your attack created the perfect chaos to draw Kante out. And your infiltration has helped us identify a few security holes that needed patching."
She glanced at the tablet on her wrist. "And now, it's time for some housekeeping. Activate Purge Protocol 734."
A robotic, emotionless voice echoed from hidden speakers: Acknowledged. Activating Purge Protocol. All unauthorized personnel, please evacuate the containment sector immediately.
"What the hell is a Purge Protocol?" Kael growled, keeping his weapon trained on Hunnigan.
"A self-cleaning system," Hunnigan explained nonchalantly. "To eliminate escaped test subjects, unwanted contaminations... or curious rats who have scurried into places they don't belong."
She and her two soldiers began to back away toward the hidden door they had emerged from. "Good luck, Hummingbird team. You're going to need it."
The door slammed shut, leaving them alone with the "Little Queen" and an invisible threat.
As soon as the door closed, a hissing sound began to emanate from the vents in the ceiling. A faint, almost invisible, greenish-yellow gas began to spread throughout the room.
"Gas!" Wraith yelled, immediately pulling her collar up over her nose and mouth. "Could be a neurotoxin! Don't breathe it in!"
Kael and Gryphon did the same, but they knew it was only a temporary measure. The air in the room was slowly becoming their enemy.
But that wasn't all.
Click. Click. Click.
Small, sharp sounds echoed as dozens of metal sluice gates, which they hadn't noticed before, snapped open along the walls.
And from within, they poured out.
They weren't like the sophisticated Chimaera. These were smaller, cruder, like hastily assembled mechanical scorpions. Their bodies were long and segmented, with six sharp metal legs and a tail tipped with a poison-filled syringe. They didn't fly. They crawled, skittering across the walls and ceiling at a horrifying speed.
"Crowd-control B.O.W.s!" Gryphon yelled, opening fire. His rifle roared, tearing apart several of the bugs crawling on the wall. "They're designed to operate in toxic environments! They're immune to the gas!"
Dozens more poured out, an army of metallic insects rushing toward them. They had no tactics. Only numbers.
Kael fired a short, precise burst, dropping three that were charging at him. But five more immediately took their place.
The room had become a deathbox. The air was killing them slowly, and a swarm of monsters was trying to kill them quickly. They couldn't stay here.
"The vent!" Kael yelled, pointing to the ceiling grate they had come down through. "It's the only way out!"
"It's too high! How do we get up there?" Gryphon shouted, firing as he backed away. A bug had crawled onto his leg, and he had to use his rifle butt to smash it.
"Use this!" Wraith threw them a small device. A portable grappling gun.
While Gryphon and Kael laid down covering fire, creating a temporary ring of fire, Wraith aimed the grappling gun at a support beam near the vent. A soft thwump, and a thin but strong cable was embedded in the beam.
"Gryphon, you first!" Kael ordered.
Gryphon didn't hesitate. He clipped on his harness, hit the button, and was yanked into the air, escaping the swarm of bugs surrounding his feet.
"Your turn!" he yelled down.
Now Kael and Wraith were exposed. The swarm surged toward them. Kael stood in front of Wraith, his rifle spitting fire nonstop, hot casings flying everywhere. He felt his breathing become more difficult. The gas was starting to take effect. His vision was blurring at the edges.
"Wraith, now!"
Wraith fired another line up. She clipped her harness on, then looked at Kael. "What about you?"
"I'm right behind you!" Kael replied, shooting two more bugs just inches from his face. "Go!"
Wraith was pulled up. Kael was alone in a sea of metal scorpions. He fired the last line, clipped in, and hit the button.
As he was being pulled up, a bug leaped, its venomous tail stinging him in the calf. A sharp, burning pain shot through him. Kael gritted his teeth, used his free hand to draw his knife and stabbed the bug, its body shattering into pieces.
He made it into the vent just as another wave of bugs swarmed below. They slammed the grate shut, trapping the monsters behind them.
They were safe. For now.
Inside the cramped ventilation shaft, they coughed and sputtered, trying to breathe in the cleaner air, though it still stank of chemicals.
"Your leg!" Wraith cried out, pointing to Kael's calf.
The sting was small, but the skin around it was already starting to turn black.
"It's nothing," Kael said through gritted teeth, pulling out an anti-toxin syrette he had grabbed from the supply closet. "Good thing I was prepared." He injected the dose straight into his thigh. The pain subsided slightly.
"We need to get out of here," Gryphon said. "They know we're in the vents. They won't leave us alone."
"Wait," Wraith said, looking at a junction box on the wall of the shaft, its cover having been knocked loose in the chaos. Inside was a tangled mess of wires. "Come look at this."
Kael and Gryphon crawled over. Wraith pointed to a single red cable, connected to the alarm system.
"See?" she said. "This cable is standard lead-sheathed. But its outer casing... it was made in Shanghai. While the rest of the cables are German-made."
"What does that mean?" Gryphon asked.
"It means it's a patch job," Wraith explained. "When they upgraded the system, they used a non-standard cable to connect the old alarm system to the new one. They cut a corner. Sloppy. And sloppiness creates weakness."
She pointed to a small chip on the circuit board. "If we deliver a targeted electrical shock to this specific chip, it won't just trip the alarm. It will likely cause a reverse-overload cascade, crashing the entire electronic door control system for this sector."
A flicker of hope. A weakness. A way to turn the tables.
Just as they were processing that information, the robotic voice echoed again from the small speakers inside the vents.
Purge Protocol, Phase One, complete. Unidentified biological elements detected in ventilation system.
The hearts of all three of them seemed to stop.
Initiating Purge Protocol, Phase Two. Ventilation system will be sealed in ten seconds. Commencing oxygen burn-off procedure.
"Damn it!" Gryphon swore. "They're going to cook us alive!"
"We have to get out!" Wraith yelled.
They began to scramble frantically down the dark shaft, not knowing where it led.
Sealing main vents. Ten... nine... eight...
They could hear the sound of steel sluice gates slamming shut behind and in front of them, trapping them in a metal coffin.
Seven... six... five...
They saw a junction ahead. A glimmer of hope.
Four... three... two...
They scrambled into the junction, and saw another grate leading out.
One. Commencing oxygen burn-off.
They heard a WHOOSH from behind them. A wave of super-heated air began to rush down the shaft, carrying death with it.
They only had seconds.