Page 102 of Rupture

She climbed back into the jeep. “I’m going to create a magnetic trap using the dive magnets. Once they’re caught, we need enough heat to disable them without blowing us all to hell.”

Rocks clattered loose where Luca dug arm-deep beside Finn. “How the hell are you planning to generate heat without turning this place into a crater?”

She dropped through the window frame into the backseat, glass crunching under her feet. The box she was looking for had wedged itself under the driver’s seat. She wriggled it out, metal slicing into her palm. Blood made her grip treacherous, but she kept going. Finn and Luca depended on her.

“I have an idea.” She lifted the box clear of the jeep, tossed it over the side. It cracked against bare rock, spilling dive flares like fallen matches. “The heat from flares won’t destroy them, but should be enough to interfere with their ability to replicate. Shut them down.”

Working fast, she arranged the military-grade magnets in a circle around the jeep, each placement precise. If the field wasn’t strong enough...

A sharp crack split the air. Rock shrapnel rained down, stinging her neck like angry wasps.

Luca’s curse reverberated through the cave as he fought to free Finn. “Almost there, Rose. Shit, he’s heavy.”

“How much longer?” she called.

The magnets alone might not cut it—she needed more power. The batteries from the initial explosion were fried, but the jeep’s battery…

The hood was buckled, the battery exposed.

She scrambled forward, retrieved the jump leads, andclamped them onto the terminals. A blue spark snapped as raw energy surged into the magnets, amplifying their field.

Luca’s voice ricocheted off the cave walls. “Three minutes. Minimum.”

We don’t have three minutes.

The swarm thickened erratically, their movement choppy and fitful. They were stunned, hopefully more.

She ripped wires from the engine, her hands shaking as she connected the final magnet.

Her fingers slipped. The magnet hit the ground.

The swarm lurched toward the sound.

“Rose!” Luca shouted.

She twisted—another surge of nanobots seeping from the cave behind her. A tide of ramping destruction.

No time.

She slammed the final magnet into position, completing the field. The nanobots wavered, caught between competing magnetic forces.

Her fingers closed around the flares. Four left. It had to be enough.

She struck the first flare against the cave floor—violent red light erupted, painting the cave bloody. Heat surged, merging with the amplified magnetic pull.

The vortex howled to life, dragging the swarm into its core.

“Got him!” Luca’s shout pierced the din. “Moving now!”

Her pulse rose to her throat as she struck the remaining flares in rapid succession, sealing the trap. The nanobots spun in a frenzied dance, dragged into the magnetic cyclone, glowing like dying stars, casting writhing shadows across the cave walls.

She staggered back from the jeep, away from thewhirling storm. Luca was gone—Finn’s boots vanishing in her blurred vision as he dragged him through.

Rose threw herself after them, crawling on her elbows. Sharp rock tore at her skin, but the pain didn’t matter. Behind her, the tornado shrieked, the pitch rising, scraping at her eardrums?—

Then it collapsed.

Searing heat licked at her heels.

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