“Stand down, kid,” Mercer said, his voice trembling slightly, but his grip on the gun remaining absolute. “Don’t make me kill her.”
“Drop the gun, Jonah,” I said softly, my eyes locked on Lucas at the end of the hall. Lucas was struggling against his zip-ties, his face a mask of rage.
Voss laughed, a dry, echoing sound in the concrete corridor. “I love the military. So much blind loyalty. It makes you all so wonderfully predictable.” Voss adjusted his grip on Lucas. “Senior Chief Mercer has a vested interest in my continued survival, Captain. Don’t you, Jonah?”
Mercer swallowed hard. I could hear the dry click of his throat. “They have my daughter, Emily. Maya. They took her from her dorm room last night.”
The air left the corridor. Maya. She was seventeen. I had bought her a graduation gift three weeks ago.
“They sent me a live feed of her,” Mercer choked out, the barrel of his gun pressing harder into my skin. “She’s locked in a shipping container. If Voss doesn’t check in every ten minutes, the ventilation shuts off.”
I closed my eyes for a fraction of a second. This was Halcyon. They didn’t just fight you; they dismantled your soul by weaponizing the people you loved.
“So here we are,” Voss said cheerfully. “Richard, step forward. Give me the piece of the code you memorized.”
My father moved like a sleepwalker, reciting a sixteen-digit alphanumeric string. Voss typed it into a ruggedized tablet on the table next to him.
“Excellent,” Voss purred. “Now, Captain Carter. The watch. Slide it over.”
“You let Lucas go first,” I countered, my mind racing. The camera. There was a red blinking light on the wall behind Voss. He was broadcasting this to his superiors.
“I don’t think you’re in a position to negotiate,” Voss sighed. “Jonah. Prove your loyalty to the network. Shoot her. Non-lethal. Just to show them you’re serious.”
Ryan screamed, “No!”
But Mercer didn’t hesitate. He shifted his aim down and pulled the trigger.
The roar of the gunshot in the enclosed space was deafening.
