Chapter 48 - The Mother of All Sins
Daniel didn't draw a gun; he didn't have one. Instead, he pulled the heavy combat knife concealed horizontally in the small of his back and hurled it with pinpoint, desperate precision.
The eight-inch blackened steel blade sliced through the air and drove straight through Emily’s left hand, pinning her palm and the remote detonator directly into the mahogany framing of the server rack behind her.
Emily shrieked in agony—a blood-curdling, feral sound that echoed off the concrete walls. The detonator shattered under the impact of the blade, its internal circuitry sparking and smoking. The high-pitched beep on Mason’s collar stopped, locking into an automated safety-fail countdown mode: *60 SECONDS*.
"No!" Emily screamed, blood spraying as she yanked her hand free from the knife, tearing her flesh open.
Daniel vaulted the catwalk railing, hitting the lower platform in a dead sprint.
Emily didn't run. Driven by sheer sociopathic rage, she drew a concealed subcompact Glock from her vest and fired three rapid rounds directly at Daniel’s chest.
One round tore through Daniel’s left shoulder, the impact spinning him around. The second round grazed his ribs, hot fire searing his side. But the third missed as Daniel closed the distance, tackling her around the waist and driving her hard into the steel pedestal.
The gun flew from Emily’s hand, clattering over the edge into the dark void beneath the platform.
They crashed to the metal floor. Emily fought like a caged animal, gouging at Daniel’s eyes, driving her knee into his wounded shoulder with ruthless ferocity. "You ruined everything!" she screamed in his face, spit and blood flying from her lips. "I spent seven years building this! I was supposed to be a queen!"
Daniel caught her wrists, his muscles screaming under the strain, and pinned her to the grated floor. His face was inches from hers—the face he had kissed in hospital rooms, the face he had wept over as machines flatlined.
"You were never a mother," Daniel whispered through clenched teeth, his blood dripping onto her cheek. "You were just a disease."
"You won't save him, Daniel!" Emily snarled, laughing hysterically through bloody teeth as she looked toward the chair. "Look at the timer! Look at it!"
On the side of Mason’s collar, the digital LED readout was glowing bright, merciless red:
*00:24*
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*00:23*
*00:22*
