A clock rang the first alarm. It stopped at 3:17. There was no power outage. There was no problem with the network.The red light on the wall was still on. The second hand stopped moving between ticks. The other monitors in the cockpit were still working.Gene saw this because he was paying attention to everything.He bent over, touched the case with his finger, and then looked at the others without saying anything. Landon looked where he was looking. The quiet went on and on. There was a low hum coming from the generators on the two lower levels."Record that," Claire said, breaking the silence.Gene tapped on a tablet. "Recorded. Little lock. "Not caused by anything outside."Navarro shrugged and looked at the straps on his jacket. "That's different."Claire said, "Now everything is new."She was at the head of the table, with her hands on it. The table showed signs of years of use, including maps, knives, spilled coffee, and plans that were quickly put together. There was a map of t

Landon Hale stood perfectly still in front of the giant Kinetic Echo machine. His jaw was locked tight. His large hands hung straight down at his sides.The strange machine was much taller than a normal man. It was shaped like a huge, broken metal ring. Thick black cables plugged into the back of it like fat snakes. Small, pale lights blinked slowly around the inside edge of the ring. The blinking lights looked like a heartbeat, but they did not look like anything alive.Every few seconds, a deep, heavy vibration shook the concrete floor of the hidden Michigan basement. When the floor shook, thin lines of gray dust jumped into the air. Loose metal tools rattled noisily on a nearby wooden table, then went completely quiet again.Sera was busy working on the machine. She used a heavy wrench to tighten the final metal clamp on the right side. Her plaid shirt sleeves were rolled up past her elbows. Thick, black grease smeared her arms. She did not look at Landon while she worked. She only

Landon could not see because there was a lightbulb or a fire. He could see because the huge stone walls inside the temple glowed faintly with those exact same cold, twisting vein patterns.The inside of the temple was impossibly enormous. The ceiling rose higher than the tallest skyscraper he had ever seen in America. The stone roof had collapsed in several places, leaving jagged, ugly holes that showed the dead gray sky above.Right in the exact center of the massive temple, a huge shape lay resting on a raised stone platform.It was a body. But it was way, way too big to be a human being. Landon moved closer, taking very slow, very careful steps.The raised platform was carved perfectly from one single piece of jet-black stone. All around the bottom of the platform lay huge, broken metal chains. Each single link of the chain was the size of Landon's entire chest.He looked up at the giant body resting on the stone. The body was not rotting or decayed. It was perfectly dried out. Lik

The map was a giant, complex network of glowing points connected by thin, bright lines. Some of the points glowed brightly. Other points were very dim.One specific point on the map was blinking rapidly. Blink. Blink. Blink.A small digital text label appeared right next to the blinking point. The label was written in secret Iron Order computer code.Landon stepped closer to the screen, narrowing his eyes to read it. He could read just enough of the evil code to understand the horror. The glowing screen said:PROJECT: EXTINCTION LOOPCYCLE: 12STATUS: COMPLETELandon’s breathing changed. It became very slow and very shallow.His large fingers flexed open and closed once.The tall figure drifted right beside him and pointed its long finger directly at the giant screen.Then, the figure lowered its hand and pointed at a much smaller computer panel located right below the big screen.The smaller panel displayed exactly seven glowing red symbols.Every single one of the seven symbols perf

The dirty Michigan basement vault suddenly snapped back into existence. Loud, chaotic sound crashed back into the room like a physical wave.The giant Kinetic Echo ring screamed with a horrible, high-pitched noise that sounded like thick metal being ripped apart by a giant. SKREEECH!Sera violently slammed her open hands down on the computer console, shouting in pure panic.Kade rapidly fired his black rifle at empty shadows that weren't even there, slowly backing away until he hit the concrete wall. Bang! Bang! Bang!Juno dropped to her knees and frantically grabbed Landon’s broad shoulders.Landon was collapsed on his knees on the hard floor. His dark eyes were impossibly wide with terror.Thick, dark blood ran freely from his nose, dripping down his chin. He coughed once, incredibly hard, and violently spit a mouthful of dark red blood onto the dirty concrete floor.Juno shouted his name over the screaming machine. "Landon! Landon, look at me!"Landon did not answer her. He could n