Chapter 19 · Two Heartbeats

The lock clicked.

Not unlocked. Clicked. Like it swallowed our blood and decided we passed some kind of test.

Then the knocking started.

Two knocks. Clean. Identical. One right after the other.

I yanked my hand back. The cut on my palm was still bleeding.

"That's not an echo," Leah whispered.

Cole pushed past us. Put his hand on the door. "Stay behind me."

"Yeah, because that worked so well last time," I said. My voice came out shaky. I hated that.

The door swung inward. No creak. No resistance. Just smooth and cold like it'd been waiting.

Inside was white. Everything white. Walls, floor, ceiling. The kind of white that makes your eyes hurt. LED strips ran along the edges, bright enough I had to squint.

"This is a lab," Dennis said from behind us. He'd caught up, breathing hard. "Gray Protocol specialty. Clean rooms for live subjects."

"Live subjects," I repeated. "Great. Love that."

Leah moved in first. She still had the rifle. Her finger wasn't on the trigger but it was close.

The room opened up. Huge. Stadium huge. But empty except for the tanks.

Four of them. Glass cylinders tall as a house.