Page 40 of Found

“I can stop it,” Everly insisted. “Computer systems is what I do. Their failsafes always have backdoors. Let me try.”

“It’s too risky,” I growled, my protective instincts in overdrive. “We’ll find another way.”

“There is no other way!” Everly’s voice rose. “We’re out of options.”

Zehn stepped between us, his expression grim. “Khaaz, she’s right. And you know it.”

I wanted to tear into him for siding against me, for putting our mate in danger. But the logic of it was inescapable. If we ran, we’d die anyway. If Everly tried and failed, at least we’d die together. But if she succeeded...

“If you’re going in there, so am I,” I said, my tone leaving no room for argument.

“We all go,” Zehn agreed. “Together.”

We approached the facility again, this time with Everly guiding us around the proximity sensors she somehow knew how to detect. The main entrance was sealed, but Zehn and I together managed to force the doors open enough for us to slip through.

Inside, the countdown echoed ominously through the corridors. “Terminus protocol will execute in thirty-five minutes.”

We followed Everly as she navigated the facility with surprising confidence, heading for what she called the central command hub. I stayed close behind her, every sense alert for danger. Zehn brought up the rear, watching our backs.

The command hub was a large circular room dominated by a central console. Displays lined the walls, each showing different aspects of the terminus protocol in progress. Power building. Detonation charges arming. Containment fields preparing to collapse.

Everly went straight to the main console and began working, her fingers flying over the interface. “This tech feels familiar. It’s like the command centers I use at work.”

“Can you stop it?” I asked, watching the countdown timer on the main display. Thirty-one minutes now.

“Maybe. There’s layers of encryption, but there’s always a—” She broke off, eyes widening as a new message appeared on the screen.

GENETIC VERIFICATION REQUIRED

KRIDRIN AUTHORIZATION NEEDED TO ABORT TERMINUS PROTOCOL

“It needs Kridrin DNA to abort,” she said, looking up at me. “Your DNA.”

As if that weren’t frustrating enough, another alarm layered itself to the countdown sequence, along with the unmistakable whine of a pulse rifle warming up.

Zehn’s head whipped around toward the entrance. “Sentinel drones?” He didn’t wait for the answer as his body shifted into his battle form.

I followed suit. “Sentinel drones.”

15 /EVERLY

The countdownon the screen flashed red, each descending number pulsing like a heartbeat about to stop. Sixty seconds. Fifty-nine. Fifty-eight. I gripped the edge of the console, my fingertips white against the metallic surface.

Outside, the sounds of Zehn and Khaaz fighting the sentinel drones echoed through the facility’s walls. The rattle of weapons fire. The screech of metal. Their roars as they kept the perimeter safe while I tried to stop us all from being atomized.

“Come on, Everly. Think,” I muttered to myself, fingers flying across the alien keyboard that somehow responded to my touch. It wasn’t the first time I’d worked under pressure, but it was definitely the first time the pressure involved an actual bomb.

A particularly loud explosion shook the walls. My heart clenched at the thought of Zehn and Khaaz out there, their massive forms twisting and leaping as they battled mechanical sentinels. I’d insisted that I could do this, and dammit, I hated being wrong.

Forty-five seconds.

The screen before me filled with lines of code, cascading data, and security protocols. My mind flashed back to the countless hours I’d spent debugging critical systems at my job.The way my supervisors would pace behind me, muttering about deadlines and security breaches while I tuned them out, focusing only on the patterns in the code.

These patterns were different, but not entirely unfamiliar. The syntax had similarities to old legacy systems I’d worked with during government contracts. Systems so old they predated modern computing frameworks. Systems built on systems built on systems.

“That’s it,” I whispered, fingers moving faster. “This isn’t completely alien technology.”

Thirty seconds.

---