City of Blood and Iron

The Core Breach

The iron wall exploded inward with a deafening blast, sending thick grey dust and jagged pieces of metal flying across the small holding cell.

Before the smoke could clear, I stepped through the broken frame, holding my iron gun in one hand and the glowing silver key in the other. The holding cell was just a tiny box on the lower deck, but the main power cable of the entire offshore ship ran right behind its back wall.

Alarms began to wail across the vessel, filling the corridors with a flashing red light.

"Intruder in lower deck sector four!" a mechanical voice echoed from the overhead speakers. "Lock down all bulkheads immediately!"

I did not wait for the guards to arrive. I sprinted down the narrow metal hallway, following the hum of the primary generator. The ship was moving fast now, cutting through the open ocean waves toward international waters where municipal laws could never reach them. If I did not reach the upper control deck within five minutes, Elena's conversion would be complete, and she would become a permanent part of the Syndicate's network.

I reached the heavy main lift at the end of the hall. The steel doors were locked tight with a glowing red security pad.

Without slowing down, I pulled my heavy wooden stamp from my coat pocket and slammed it directly into the center of the glass screen.

THWUMP.

The red light turned green instantly. The lift doors slid open with a sharp hiss, and I jumped inside, pressing the button for the top floor—the captain's bridge and primary conversion suite.

The lift shot upward like a bullet, pressing me hard against the metal wall as it climbed through six decks of the massive ship.

When the doors opened again, I was standing in a massive, open room made of clean white glass and gleaming steel. Giant windows showed the dark, stormy ocean stretching out in every direction under the heavy night sky.

In the exact center of the room, Elena was strapped to a tall vertical glass frame.

The silver light had already covered her entire body, turning her into a stunning statue of shining metal. Only her face remained human, her dark eyes wide and fixed on the main control console where Regional Director Vance Senior stood typing rapid commands into a floating keyboard.

"You broke out of the holding cell," Vance Senior said without turning around, his voice calm and steady as he watched the glowing columns of data stream across the glass. "I expected better from a municipal clerk, Kyle. You are more stubborn than your father."

"Let her go, Marcus," I said, raising my iron gun and pointing it directly at his back.

The older man turned around slowly. He looked at the gun, then looked at me, and let out a quiet, cold laugh.

"You can shoot me, Kyle," Vance Senior said, spreading his arms wide. "If you pull that trigger, the conversion program locks permanently. Your sister's mind will be wiped out in five seconds, and her body will become a lifeless data storage unit for the offshore board."

My finger froze on the trigger. My heart raced, but I forced my breathing to stay steady. I looked at Elena. Her eyes flicked toward my pocket, giving me a tiny, nearly invisible signal.

She was not waiting for me to negotiate. She was giving me an opening.

"You talk a lot about contracts," I said, taking two slow steps forward into the room. "You talk about debt and rules and master ledgers. But you forgot the oldest rule of the municipal code."

Vance Senior raised an eyebrow. "And what rule is that?"

"Section zero," I said. "Any contract signed under false identity is completely null and void."

Before Vance Senior could react, I pulled the sharp silver key from my pocket and threw it across the room like a knife.

The key spun through the air, flashing a bright silver light, and struck the main glass terminal right between Vance Senior's hands.

CRACK.

The key punched straight through the glass screen and embedded itself deep into the central processor.

A blinding wave of white light exploded from the terminal, knocking Vance Senior backward onto the floor. The floating screens around the room shattered into millions of tiny sparks, and the red emergency lights flickered and died.

Elena gasped loudly.

The silver light covering her arms and face began to peel away in thin, sparkling flakes, dissolving into the air like morning mist. The metal bonds around her wrists snapped open with a sharp mechanical hiss, and she fell forward out of the glass frame.

I dropped my gun and sprinted across the room, catching her before she hit the floor.

"Kyle..." she whispered, her voice weak but entirely human again as her dark eyes looked up at me. Her skin was warm, and the normal color had returned to her face. "You actually did it."

"I told you I was not leaving without you," I said, holding her close against my shoulder.

On the floor a few feet away, Regional Director Vance Senior pushed himself up onto one knee. His neat black suit was torn, and blood trickled down from a cut on his forehead. He stared at the ruined terminal in absolute disbelief, his face twisting into a mask of pure fury.

"You fool," Vance Senior choked out, coughing as he pointed a shaking hand at the broken console. "You just destroyed the local anchor! Without this ship's navigation system, we are drifting right into the storm boundary! The entire regional division will collapse!"

"Good," I said, helping Elena stand up on her feet.

I reached into my pocket, pulled out my heavy wooden stamp, and walked slowly toward the man on the floor.

"It is time for a complete system reset," I added.

Before I could bring the stamp down, the entire ship lurched violently to the left. A deafening roar echoed through the steel walls as the front of the vessel collided with something massive hidden in the dark waters ahead.

The floor split wide open beneath our feet, and a flood of cold ocean water poured into the bridge.