The screen inside Commander Oliver’s helmet was completely red. There were no numbers. There were no maps. There was only the bright, bloody color of a total system failure.Oliver lay on the cold stone floor of the massive underground cavern. He could not move his arms. He could not move his legs. His heart had stopped beating. The energy explosion from the alien coin had stopped his human chest.“Calculating extinction,” the Overlord’s deep, terrible voice echoed inside Oliver’s dying brain. “Time remaining: Zero.”A normal man would surrender to the dark. A normal man would close his eyes and accept death.But Oliver was not a normal man. He was a mathematician. And he knew that the math was not finished yet.Oliver could not move his physical body, but his mind was still awake. His brain worked like a supercomputer that was losing power. He focused all of his fading energy into one single thought.His smart armor had an emergency medical subroutine. It was a tiny piece of computer

"We are trusting patterns," Oliver corrected him. "Patterns never lie."They walked for another hour. Oliver’s right hand was throbbing with horrible pain. Using the Echo Sense was draining his physical energy. He felt weak. But he did not stop. He did not slow down."Commander," Jax said softly from behind. "Can I ask you a question?""Speak," Oliver said, keeping his eyes on the dark path ahead."Back there in the cavern," Jax said. "The King said he was going to kill us. He said the golden door needed a sacrifice. Did you... did you put the coin in the door?""No," Oliver said cleanly. "I shot the coin with my plasma rifle. I caused a localized magical explosion to break the King’s spell."Jax stopped walking. He stared at Oliver’s back. "You shot a magic bomb right next to your own hand? Sir, you could have blown your own arm off. You could have died.""The probability of my death was extremely high," Oliver admitted."Then why did you do it?" Jax asked. His voice was full of conf

The computer screen flashed bright red. UPLOAD PROGRESS: 99%The Wraithborn King smiled. His pale, broken face looked like a nightmare. "You have ten seconds, Commander Oliver," the King whispered softly. "Save the sky, and kill your people. Or save your people, and let the God burn the world."Oliver stood in the control room. He held his heavy black pistol. He looked at the red lever on the wall. He looked at the glowing computer screen. He listened to the sound of Captain Iris crying over the small radio on the desk.Captain Jax raised his fists. He was ready to attack the King, even if it meant dying."What do we do, Commander?" Jax panicked. "We cannot let the Overlord take the sky!"Oliver did not sweat. He did not shake. His mind worked like a perfect, cold machine. The King had given him a math problem with two terrible answers. But Oliver knew a secret about math.If you do not like the answers, you change the equation."Five seconds," the King laughed. "Make your choice."Ol

BEEP.The disc glowed blue. It instantly froze the floating rock in mid-air. The rock stopped moving. It became a solid, steady platform."Jump," Oliver ordered.Jax ran to the edge and leaped. He flew across the empty black space. He landed heavily on the frozen floating rock. He caught his balance.Oliver jumped next. He landed softly next to Jax.SCREEECH!Five Wraithborn sentries phased out of the wall behind them. They jumped onto the starting platform. They saw the humans escaping."Keep moving," Oliver said. He did not look back.He threw the second silver disc. It hit another floating rock, thirty feet further out. The rock locked into place with a blue flash."Go!" Oliver said.Jax jumped. He barely made it. His boots slipped on the dusty stone, but he grabbed the edge and pulled himself up.Oliver leaped gracefully. He landed perfectly in the center of the rock.Behind them, the sentries jumped from the starting platform onto the first floating rock. They were fast. They ran

"Move!" Jax shouted, waving his arms. "Get out of the cage!""Stop," Oliver commanded sharply.Jax froze. The miners froze."If you all run out of the door at the same time," Oliver explained, his gray eyes scanning the terrified group, "the sudden shift in weight will snap the second chain instantly. The cage will flip upside down. You will all fall into the fire."Oliver stepped forward. He stood at the very edge of the metal cage. He looked at the group of miners."We must balance the math," Oliver said. "I will call you by weight. Heaviest people first. You will step off the cage exactly when I tell you.""Heaviest first?!" a woman in the back screamed. "I have a young boy here! Let the children go first!"She pushed a scared, skinny teenager forward. The boy was shaking uncontrollably. His name was Sam."Negative," Oliver said. He did not show an ounce of pity. "If the lightest person leaves first, the weight of the cage does not change enough to stabilize the tilt. The heavy peo