Chapter 9 - The Deadly Failsafe
I promised Annie that she could design and build the most advanced laboratory in the world.
She looked down at her hands and admitted that she had always dreamed of changing the world.
A sudden loud knock on the hospital door interrupted our quiet moment.
An imposing federal agent walked into the room holding a heavily encrypted tablet.
He looked grim and stated that they had encountered a massive problem with the microchip.
Arthur had programmed a deadly failsafe sequence into the vault's master network before he died.
If the authorities attempted to decrypt the syndicate files without the proper biometric key a bomb would detonate.
The bomb was deeply embedded within the structural foundation of my estate.
The explosive yield was large enough to level the entire surrounding neighborhood.
The timer had already started and there were only forty minutes left until total detonation.
Annie immediately grabbed her laptop from the side table and demanded access to the agent's tablet.
She rapidly analyzed the complex code of the failsafe program and formulated a desperate plan.
She explained that she could physically bridge the connection using the neural interface of her advanced prosthetic leg.
Her synthetic nerve sensors could trick the mainframe into accepting her pulse as the required biometric key.
The dangerous catch was that a massive surge of electricity would pass directly through her body.
The raw voltage could easily cause severe neurological damage or stop her heart entirely.
I aggressively refused to let her risk her life for a building that could be replaced.
She looked at me fiercely and reminded me that hundreds of innocent neighbors would die in the blast.
She unhooked my IV line and told the agent to drive us back to the estate immediately.
We raced through the city streets escorted by a dozen screaming police cruisers.
We arrived at the evacuated mansion with only twelve minutes left on the countdown clock.
We sprinted down into the basement vault where the explosive device was hardwired into the server rack.
Annie sat on the floor and removed the protective casing from her carbon fiber leg.
She connected a thick copper grounding wire from the bomb's circuit board directly to her titanium socket.
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She looked up at me with tears in her eyes and asked me to hold her hand.
I gripped her hand tightly and silently prayed that she would survive the incredible shock.
