Chapter 393"The valve's actuator!" Noah's voice was a high, thin screech, nearly swallowed by the roar of the thundering water. "It’s cycling on a closed loop, Elias! If I can't interrupt the feedback, it’s going to seal us in!" "Can you jam the signal?" Elias yelled back. He was choking on the spray, his good arm wrapped like a steel band around the primary conduit while his boots kicked uselessly against the slick, moss-covered metal of the pipe. Every movement sent a nauseating wave of pain through his fractured collarbone. "Noah! Answer me!" "I’m trying! The resonance is too high—it’s burning my temples!" Noah’s eyes were squeezed shut, his small forehead pressed directly against the cold, vibrating casing of the valve. "It’s not just a mechanical switch. It’s a security protocol from the harbor mainframe. They’re purging the entire sub-level!" "Then bypas

Chapter 395The blue flash did not just illuminate the dark, narrow shaft; it seemed to rip the oxygen straight out of Elias’s lungs. A high-pitched, metallic whine tore through the air, vibrating the very marrow of his bones. Noah’s body went instantly rigid. The boy’s hand was fused to the copper busbar by a web of crackling, violet-blue arcs. His head snapped back, his jaw locked, and a low, strangled gasp escaped his throat. "Noah!" Elias screamed. The water was already licking at Elias’s chin, cold and bitter with the taste of fuel. Ignoring the agony in his fractured collarbone, Elias lunged upward. He wrapped his right arm around Noah’s waist and threw all of his weight backward, using the gravity of their suspended position to tear the boy away from the circuit. The connection broke with a wet, heavy pop. The blue arcs vanished, plungi

Chapter 396With a violent, shuddering groan of heavy iron, the sluice gate above them gave way, slamming down into its track with enough force to send a shockwave vibrating through the chemical-choked water. Elias coughed violently, spitting a mouthful of bitter, oil-slicked brine as he hauled Noah’s limp weight higher against his chest. The water level dropped an inch, then two, draining away into the newly opened discharge channels of the harbor’s lower sub-levels. "Noah!" Elias shook the boy’s shoulder, his heart hammering against his ribs like a trapped bird. "Noah, talk to me. Damn it, open your eyes." Noah’s head lolled backward, his damp hair plastered against a pale, sweat-soaked forehead. There was no response, only a faint, shallow rattle in his chest. His right palm was blackened, scored with jagged, angry burns where the violet-blue arc had bitten into his flesh. <

Chapter 398"Sarah, I’m moving. Give me a vector!" Elias hauled Noah’s limp weight higher onto his shoulder, his boots skidding across the slick, slime-coated bottom of the drainage conduit. Each step was a jagged needle of lightning shooting through his fractured collarbone, but the adrenaline—thick and metallic—was the only thing keeping his legs from buckling into the rising brine. "Level four access corridor, Elias! Look for the red strobe," Sarah’s voice crackled through the static, sounding frantic. "If you don't clear the pressure bulkhead in ninety seconds, the system-wide flush is going to cycle. You’ll be flattened against the grate before I can override it again!" "Ninety seconds? I've got a kid who weighs eighty pounds and a shoulder held together by prayer and spite," Elias hissed, his breath hitching as he stumbled over a protruding pipe. "Make it two minutes."

Chapter 400"The red strobe! I see it!" Elias gasped, throwing his entire weight against the heavy steel bulkhead door just as the overhead lights flashed a violent, warning crimson. Sarah’s face appeared in the narrow, reinforced glass portal of the hatch, her eyes wide with panic. She slammed her palm against the exterior override pad. "Elias, hurry! The flush cycle is locking in twenty seconds!" "I'm at the damn door!" Elias roared, kicking the base of the bulkhead with his boot heel because his arms were completely occupied with Noah’s limp, unresponsive form. The heavy pneumatic locks disengaged with a deafening, high-pressure hiss that sent a cloud of white condensation billowing across the corridor floor. Before the door had even fully slid back into its recessed slot, Elias half-stumbled, half-dived through the opening, carrying Noah’s dead weight directly into the safety of the secondary