Chapter 24 · Rift Protocol - Chapter 24: The Mother's Door

"Don't."

I'm not talking to Dalen. I'm talking to the gun in his hand.

He's standing at the edge of the crater where Yael's body used to be. The blast carved a hole twenty feet wide into the bunker floor. Below it, something's still glowing. Not fire. Not light. Something else.

"Don't what?" Dalen says. He doesn't look at me. He's looking down.

"Don't go in there."

"You saw what happened to Yael."

"I saw him die," I say. "I didn't see him stop."

Dalen finally turns. His face is streaked with blood and concrete dust. His right eye's swollen half-shut. But his hands are steady.

"You think he's still alive?"

"I think he's not done."

The glow pulses. Once. Twice. Like a heartbeat.

"Kess," Dalen says, and his voice drops into that tone I hate. The one that means he's about to do something stupid and permanent. "You said the shutdown code's in your head."

"I said it might be."

"You said Echidna's core is your brainwave."

"That doesn't mean—"

"It means if I can find the original you, the one before Yael started editing, I can pull the code and end this."

I step closer.