Chapter 21 · Thirty Minutes Flat

"Get your hand off that knife!" Evelyn drove the butt of her empty pistol into the puppet's red eye.

The metal head snapped sideways. Its fingers stopped an inch from the alloy blade buried through Nolan's side.

For half a second, nobody moved.

Then the puppet's ruined eye flashed white.

"Core restart in thirty minutes," the ceiling speakers announced. "Containment failure will result in citywide ignition."

"You have got to be kidding me." Evelyn backed toward Nolan, gun still raised. "Thirty minutes for what?"

"Evelyn, don't let it touch the blade," Nolan said.

His voice came through clenched teeth. Blood ran beneath his jacket and pooled on the control console. The blade had pinned him there like the machine wanted him displayed.

"I noticed the knife," she snapped. "You want to explain the citywide ignition part?"

The puppet turned its broken face toward her. One red lens was gone. The other burned brighter.

"The core is unstable. The dome will fail. The lower districts will burn."

"And your plan is to pull the core out of him?"

"Recovery protocol accepted."

The puppet lunged.

Evelyn kicked the control console. The metal panel slammed into the puppet's knees, buying her one second.