Chapter 22 - FIRE UNDER THE CHURCH
The smoke was not ordinary fire smoke.
Evelyn covered her mouth and pulled a detector from the wall.
“Sedative gas.”
Adrian stumbled first.
I dragged Daniel’s jacket over my face and moved toward the ventilation controls.
The system required power.
Teresa had cut it remotely.
Evelyn fired into a small glass panel beside the workshop door and pulled an emergency lever. Metal shutters opened near the ceiling.
Cold air rushed in.
Someone struck the steel door from outside.
Once.
Twice.
The locking bolts began retracting.
“They have override access,” Adrian said.
Evelyn tossed me a respirator.
“You and Adrian take the tunnel behind the tool wall.”
“What about you?”
“I’ll delay them.”
“No.”
“Connor, Amy has less than five hours.”
She shoved the rifle into my hands.
“Daniel died to keep you out of Teresa’s system. Don’t waste that by dying in his basement.”
The steel door opened three inches.
A black-gloved hand appeared through the gap.
Evelyn fired.
The hand disappeared.
Adrian pulled a cabinet away from the wall, revealing a narrow passage.
I hesitated.
Evelyn looked at me.
“Bring Amy home.”
We entered the passage as gunfire erupted behind us.
The tunnel climbed beneath the churchyard and opened inside an abandoned drainage culvert.
Rain had begun.
Adrian coughed on his knees.
“We can’t leave Evelyn.”
“We’re not.”
I activated the radio she had given me.
Only static answered.
Then three sharp clicks.
A pause.
Two clicks.
Daniel had taught me that pattern during childhood hikes.
Move east. Enemy behind.
Evelyn was alive and moving.
We reached the van hidden beyond the tree line.
The windshield had been smashed.
A dead man lay beside the driver’s door wearing black tactical clothing.
Evelyn emerged from the woods with blood on her sleeve.
“Your mother’s people are less disciplined than they think.”
“You’re hit.”
“Grazed.”
She climbed into the driver’s seat.
Adrian examined the dead attacker’s wrist.
A small black symbol had been tattooed beneath his thumb.
Three interlocking circles.
Adrian went still.
“What is it?” I asked.
“The Continuity emblem.”
“You said the program was secret.”
“It was.”
He searched the man’s jacket and found a digital identification card.
The photograph showed the attacker.
The name did not.
It read:
SUBJECT THREE SECURITY DETAIL.
Evelyn started the van.
“Looks like Subject Three isn’t a prisoner.”
Adrian stared at the card.
May you like
“No,” he said quietly. “Subject Three is the person Teresa built the entire program to serve.”
📖 As Connor races toward the mountain, he learns Subject Three may be controlling Teresa rather than waiting to be rescued. 👇
