Chapter 55
CHAPTER 55 — THE COLD TRINITY
The chamber dissolved into an absolute meat-grinder of automatic gunfire and hydraulic violence. Julian Vance let out a mechanized roar, using his exoskeleton to rip a three-foot steel support beam from the platform, swinging it with enough force to decapitate two of Thomas’s commandos instantly.
Anna grabbed Claire, pulling her behind the massive jade sarcophagus as bullets ricocheted off the reinforced glass.
"The oil is heating up!" Anna shouted, pointing at the digital gauges on the side of Harrison Whitmore’s glass coffin. "The proximity of the jade shoe is triggering an automated thaw sequence! The old man is waking up, Claire!"
Inside the glass, Harrison Whitmore’s eyes suddenly snapped open. They weren't blue or brown. They were a milky, clouded white, fixed directly on Lily, who was walking toward the console as if pulled by an invisible string.
"Lily, stop!" Claire lunged forward, but a stray bullet caught her in the thigh, sending her tumbling onto the wet steel floor.
Lily reached the primary interface, setting the jade shoe into a circular indentation at the base of the sarcophagus. The golden oil inside the chamber began to drain rapidly, pumped out into the dark waters of the bay below.
PRIMARY INSTANCE AWAKENED, a synthesized voice boomed from the walls. AUTHENTICATION REQUIRED FROM ACCESS KEY: BLACK.
Claire realized it instantly. The black shoes they had left behind in Montauk—the ones her husband Julian had brought to the cabin—were the only things that could authorize the final release of the grandfather.
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Julian Vance, his exoskeleton sparking from multiple bullet wounds, pinned Thomas against the wall with his hydraulic arm. "Where are the black shoes, Thomas?! I know you intercepted the shipment from New York!"
Thomas choked, blood leaking from his nose, but he managed a mad, defiant grin. "I didn't intercept them, Julian. I gave them to the only person who actually knows how to use them."
