Chapter 26 · Three Seconds to Blow

Chapter 26: Three Seconds to Blow

"Trigger the depot self-destruct!" My father's voice rips out of someone's dropped radio behind us, and the floor answers him half a second later — a jolt under my heels like the whole building just took a punch. Three tons of concrete just introduced itself to the beam over our heads, and it isn't done talking.

"Go." Luca's got my wrist before I even register he's moved, hauling me off the loading ramp and back through the steel door we just came out of. "Tape's still in the cabinet."

"We're going back in?"

"You want it burned with the building, or you want it in your hand?"

"I'm not losing the only thing that clears my name."

"Then run."

I don't answer again. I just run.

The corridor's already hazing with dust, fine gray powder sifting down from a crack spidering across the ceiling. The air tastes like a struck match and torn rebar. Somewhere overhead, concrete groans like it's deciding something. The alarm hasn't even finished its first loop and already my ears are ringing under it.

"Three-one-four.