Chapter 36 · Stitching the Fortress Together

The third-floor landing came up fast. I hit it on both knees.

My hand left a fresh, red drag mark the whole way up the banister. Mine. The gash on my flank had split open again on the second flight, and I didn't have the time to care. Above the nursery door, the override buzzer screamed like a dentist's drill through bone.

Owen was already there.

He’d beaten me up the stairs with a twelve-gauge in one fist and his jaw split wide open. Both palms were flat on the steel frame, leaning into it like he could keep the world out by sheer weight.

"Override," he said, chest heaving. "Someone spliced the service line."

Red diodes pulsed the length of the jamb. Fast. Panic-speed. The exact rhythm of an infusion pump emptying a lethal dose into a vein.

"It's a bypass." I jammed my thumbnail under the panel lip and yanked. The housing cracked off like a busted knuckle. Inside was a rat’s nest of wire and a bright, unoxidized copper jumper.

"Don't touch the red," Owen growled.

"I know what the red does."

"It blows the solenoid. The lock welds shut.