Chapter 31 · Ghost's Second Order

The order sits on the screen like a loaded gun.

Ghost Seven. Reactor three. Sabotage detected. Containment failing. Authorize immediate lockdown and manual override.

Keira stares at it. The archive room hums around her, cold and too bright. Taren's still behind her somewhere. She can hear him breathing.

The timestamp says eighteen minutes ago.

"What is it?" His voice is careful. He doesn't move closer.

She doesn't answer. Her hand hovers over the console. The order's flagged urgent. Reactor three is the main power plant for the whole academy. If containment fails, the blast radius takes out the training complex, the barracks, the med wing. Everything.

Everyone.

Her throat's dry. She pulls up the reactor status feed with fingers that don't shake because Ghost Seven's hands never shook. The readout makes her stomach drop.

Core temp spiking. Coolant pressure falling. Fourteen minutes to critical.

"Keira." Taren's voice cuts through the noise in her head. "Talk to me."

"Reactor three's going to blow." She says it flat. "Sabotage. Whoever did it knew what they were doing."

She hears him move. Sees his reflection in the dark glass of the monitor as he comes up beside her. He reads the screen.