Chapter 7 - The Ghost in the Machine
Clara crawled incredibly desperately through the suffocating, dusty darkness, blindly following the faint, pulsating blue glow radiating from Leo's unique wrist.
The heavy, incredibly thick metal walls of the maintenance shaft vibrated violently as massive, terrifying explosions rapidly echoed from the lower levels of the doomed facility.
The calm, robotic countdown voice had been mostly muffled by the thick steel, but they absolutely knew they only had a very few precious minutes entirely left.
Clara's small knees were badly scraped and bleeding, but the absolutely terrifying reality of their deadly situation kept her aggressively moving forward.
She quietly asked Leo who could possibly possess the incredible, unprecedented power to hack entirely into a highly classified, totally off-the-grid underground laboratory.
Leo sadly admitted that the highly unique digital signature actually felt incredibly familiar, very much like a distant echo of a strange voice he had often heard in his darkest dreams.
They finally reached a completely vertical, rusted metal access ladder that stretched impossibly upward into a seemingly endless, incredibly dark abyss.
Leo firmly insisted on climbing last, allowing him to successfully and gently push Clara upward whenever her entirely exhausted legs threatened to completely give out.
The terrifyingly high climb was absolute, pure physical agony, severely testing the absolute, furthest limits of Clara's newly restored, incredibly fragile physical strength.
Every single agonizing time she genuinely felt like completely letting go, Leo's firm, warm hand would firmly press against her heel, offering silent, immense encouragement.
They finally reached a heavy, totally locked metal grate at the absolute top of the massive shaft, which Leo successfully shoved open with a very mighty, entirely desperate groan.
They spilled entirely out onto the highly polished, incredibly cold marble floor of what looked exactly like an abandoned, totally luxurious corporate lobby.
Bright, beautiful moonlight streamed heavily through the massive, floor-to-ceiling glass windows, thankfully revealing that they were finally back on the absolute surface of the massive city.
Clara laid completely flat on her tired back, greedily gasping for incredibly fresh air while hot tears of sheer, absolute relief streamed entirely down her dirty face.
Leo stood up incredibly quickly, his aggressively glowing barcode actively pulsing faster as he methodically scanned the empty, silent lobby for any potential hidden threats.
A sudden, incredibly sharp digital chime echoed loudly through the totally silent room, and a massive, completely blank video screen on the far wall abruptly flared completely to life.
A fully digitally obscured, terrifying face appeared on the large screen, completely composed entirely of rapidly shifting green code and heavy, aggressive static.
The highly mysterious hacker warmly congratulated them on successfully surviving the impossible ascent, speaking loudly with a heavily synthesized, deeply robotic voice.
Clara sat up incredibly quickly, boldly demanding to know who the person was and exactly why they had risked absolutely everything to magically help them escape.
The digital figure on the massive screen chuckled incredibly softly, producing a deeply unnatural sound that immediately sent a horrible, freezing shiver straight down Clara's spine.
"I did not do it to genuinely help you, Clara Pendelton," the synthesized voice stated incredibly coldly, completely stripping away any remaining, foolish illusion of safety.
The hacker calmly explained that Dr. Vance was a complete, utter fool who fundamentally and entirely misunderstood the true, world-changing potential of the neural link.
Vance only wanted to selfishly use the incredible technology to simply cure the ultra-wealthy, but the hacker possessed entirely grander, incredibly far more destructive plans.
The incredibly heavy main doors of the grand lobby suddenly slammed completely shut, and massive, impenetrable steel barricades instantly dropped aggressively over all the glass windows.
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"You two are absolutely the only truly successful living prototypes in physical existence, and you absolutely belong to me now," the robotic voice declared incredibly proudly.
As the large screen finally faded entirely to black, the lobby's heavily reinforced elevator doors completely opened to confidently reveal a dozen heavily armed, heavily armored robotic security drones.
