Chapter 29 · Reset Protocol - Chapter 29: No Exit in the Observation Layer

"Stop running."

The voice came from everywhere. Mark skidded to a halt in the middle of what looked like a hospital corridor, except the walls were glass and behind them floated rows of bodies in suspension fluid. His claws scraped the floor.

"I said stop."

He turned. The woman stood twenty feet back, hands up, no weapon visible. Hood down. Face bare.

Erin Sun.

"You burned a number into my eye," Mark said. "Now you want me to stop?"

"I burned it so you'd have the code. The protocol pulled me back before I could explain."

"Explain what? That I'm out of resets? That I've got four hours before everyone dies?"

"Three hours fifty-two minutes," she said. "And yes."

Mark took a step forward. The claws on his right hand extended. "Where's the core?"

"You're standing in the observation layer. There is no exit the way you came."

"Then make one."

"I can't." She lowered her hands slowly. "The protocol locked me out the second I gave you that last digit."

"Not my problem."

"It is if you want to reach Vera."

Mark lunged.