Countdown Protocol

The elevator doors slide open, a sniper bullet rips through my chest, and the last thing I see is Iris Vaughn’s terrified face before the world goes black. Seconds later, I gasp awake right back inside the elevator. The doors haven’t opened yet, but a glowing red number burns across my wrist: 27. Every time I die, time resets to this elevator cab—and the counter drops by one. The skyscraper is a shifting deathtrap, the hit squad’s tactics adapt to every mistake I make, and Iris—the icy tech heiress I was hired to extract—is harboring lethal secrets. She knows the layouts. She knows the ambush patterns. And in every single loop, she is executed on the twelfth floor. When the masked mastermind behind the slaughter steps into the security feed, he removes his helmet to reveal the face of a brother-in-arms I buried years ago. Noah isn't just trying to wipe us out; he built this endless execution loop specifically to break me. With the countdown ticking relentlessly toward zero, I must conquer a vertical fortress of assassins, outsmart my resurrected comrade, and decide if the woman beside me is the victim I swore to protect—or the architect of my execution.