Page 30 of Rupture

The sense of wrongness lingered.

The room was crescent-shaped, with an impressive floor-to-ceiling window that looked out onto the inky darkness of the lake beyond. Rose moved closer to the glass, her eyes straining to penetrate the gloom. But there was nothing to see, just an endless expanse of black water that seemed to swallow the light whole. She turned away from the window, smoothing the raised hairs on the back of her neck with trembling fingers.

Her eyes struggled to adjust to the feeble light bathing the room. The air carried a hint of ozone and the faint,acrid tang of sweat, a memory of the life that had once been here.

At the heart of the room, a circle of sleek workstations formed a hub. Chairs sat empty at each station, their polished metal frames contrasting with expensive looking white leather upholstery. Rose ran her fingers along the smooth surface of one chair, feeling the coolness of the metal. Her own lab had cheap plastic chairs. Triton core had spared no expense here.

In the center of the circle, there was a polished steel table, its surface a flawless expanse of gleaming metal. She guessed it was a base for holographic maps, which would allow the crew to visualize their data in three-dimensional detail. But now, the table lay dormant. She turned slowly, taking in the rest of the room with a growing sense of unease. The banks of screens that lined the walls were dark, their surfaces a featureless black.

Rose blew out an audible breath. She was letting her imagination get the better of her. She would do well to remember she was a scientist.

She joined Finn where he’d taken a seat at the nearest workstation.

Ethan skimmed his hand across the comms button in his ear. “Liev, this is Ethan. Sitrep?”

“Primary power has been temporarily disabled.” The comms in her ear crackled with Liev’s accented voice. “We’re running on auxiliary but all systems appear to be in order. I’ll have the primary power up and running in less than ten minutes. Life support looks good and the oxygen scrubbers are operating at one hundred percent.”

“Harris provided the passwords.” Finn removed a sturdy tablet from inside his tactical vest. He pulled a keyboard close and typed.

The screen remained black for a moment before it cleared, revealing the three-pronged Triton Core logo. Finn sucked air through his teeth, his eyes narrowing at the sight of the emblem. He exhaled slowly as he tapped his fingertips against the tabletop. “Okay. Let’s see where the crew is.”

His hands flew over the keyboard. “The crew has been electronically tagged.” He waited for his request to load as the Triton Core logo rotated.

“Tagged?” Rose pulled one of the sleek chairs closer, grateful to be off her feet for five minutes.

“It’s part of their contract, something to do with being able to track you down if you vanish with Triton’s top secret data.” Finn scowled. “A corporate ankle bracelet with extra zest.”

Rose rubbed small circles against the points of tension in her temple. The idea of being electronically monitored sent ice down her spine. “Sounds like Triton has trust issues.”

“You have no idea.” His mouth drew into a thin line. “They make paranoid schizophrenics look well-adjusted.”

Above their heads, the main lights flared and then settled, a clean brightness replacing the muted softness of the emergency lighting. The drone of the computers increased several decibels, the noise of a system prepping for action. Rose’s pulse skittered. Why was restoring the power to the mainframe freaking her out so much?

Ethan paced behind her. “Liev. Command center is live. Initiating full lockdown protocol. Io perimeter sealed. Any breach will trigger the alarm.”

Finn’s monitor chimed.

Her guess about the function of the table had been correct. A 3d holographic representation of the base in crispazure blue materialized in the center of the room. A cluster of yellow dots filled one corner of the illuminated structure.

“Is this the crew?” Rose pushed herself up from the chair, navigating the narrow gap between the workstations to get a better look. Pain speared her chest.Was one of them her sister, Thea?

Finn pushed his chair back, stretching out his long legs. “Yes. That’s them.”

Rose stared at the cluster, her mind racing. The crew was together, but their location within the base was far from any of the main living or working areas. It was as if someone had herded them into a corner, trapping them like animals in a cage.

“Where exactly are they?”

Finn’s eyes fixed on the hologram. “The biome.”

17

Finn palmedthe biome door lock. Ethan had remained in the command room, finalizing comms with Cade on the surface, but Finn had brought Rose with him.

Still this craziness of needing her close. He flexed his hand, the one that had protected a woman yet cost him years of his life. His actions had left a permanent stain. Even if Rose couldn’t see it.

“Finn.” Her voice at his shoulder pulled him back, returning him to the task at hand. The door wasn’t for opening.

The glass, tinged murky green by the plant growth thriving on the other side, was opaque, obscuring the secrets that lay beyond.

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