Chapter 8 - The Secondary Protocol
The shattered pieces of the remote sparked violently on the marble floor.
Elias looked at the broken plastic and his face drained of all color.
He yelled that destroying the master remote had automatically triggered a lethal fail-safe protocol inside the implant.
The red light on Sophie's spine illuminated once again, pulsing twice as fast as before.
Elias checked his scanner and announced that we now had less than three minutes before the device completely detonated.
There was no longer any way to pause or cancel the signal externally.
The only option left was to physically cut the device out of her spine before the timer reached zero.
I looked around the chaotic, smoke-filled foyer, realizing we were completely trapped in a war zone.
My mother was screaming at her remaining guards to secure the real will from our ruined vehicle.
Elias told me to carry Sophie down the hallway to the estate's private medical wing.
He provided covering fire, brutally taking down two heavily armored guards who tried to block our path.
We kicked open the double doors of the sterile medical suite and placed Sophie onto the cold operating table.
Elias aggressively ripped open medical cabinets, searching desperately for proper surgical tools.
He found a highly advanced laser scalpel and a bottle of raw, industrial antiseptic.
I held my crying daughter's hand tightly, begging her to stay awake and keep looking at me.
Elias poured the harsh antiseptic directly over the surgical scar on her lower back, causing her to scream in agony.
He warned me that he was not a licensed surgeon, and this procedure could paralyze her permanently if his hand slipped.
I told him to cut the device out immediately because she would not survive the next two minutes anyway.
He activated the laser scalpel, the bright blue beam humming intensely in the quiet room.
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But just as he made the first precise incision, the heavy medical doors were violently kicked open.
My mother stood in the doorway, holding a loaded handgun aimed directly at Elias's head.
