Chapter 32 · Reset Protocol - Chapter 32: The Shutdown Code Needs One of Us

"Don't." Lucas came through the door fast, his daughter clutched against his chest. "Don't touch that screen."

Mark's finger froze half an inch from the confirmation button. Vera's hand went slack in his other palm.

"Lucas—" Mark started.

"I said don't." Lucas kicked the door shut behind him. The little girl had her face buried in his shoulder, tiny hands fisted in his jacket. "Erin just told me what that button does."

"It shuts down the protocol," Mark said. His throat felt like ground glass. "That's what we came here for."

"It shuts down the protocol by burning whoever's in the dissolution queue into the core processor." Lucas crossed the narrow space in three strides. "It turns them into the kill switch. Erin said the system needs a conscious subject to verify the shutdown command every millisecond for the next six hours, or the archive triggers anyway."

Mark looked down at Vera. Her eyes were half-closed, pupils blown. The veins in her neck pulsed black under the skin.

"She already chose," Mark said.

"She chose wrong." Lucas shifted his daughter to one arm and grabbed Mark's wrist, yanked it away from the screen.