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CHAPTER 78 PART 2
Sean opened his hand. A spatial gate appeared in the air three meters above the courtyard, directly in the bird's path. A single steel ball bearing dropped out of it like a stone falling from a cliff.The bearing hit the hawk at terminal velocity. The bird let out a short, startled screech, its wings crumpling around the impact. It fell out of the sky like a broken kite and slammed into the snow with a heavy metallic clang.Danny's mouth fell open. "You hit it.""I hit it." Sean grinned and rolled his shoulders. "Count the next one.""Another one coming! West side, near the water tower!"Sean opened a second gate and released a second bearing. The hawk dropped. Danny shouted the next position, and the next, and Sean answered each call with a gate and a falling ball of steel. Seven times. Eight. Nine."That's nine!" Danny cried. "Sean, that's nine in a row!""Eleven." Sean opened his eyes. "I want eleven."He stepped out into the open courtyard, ignoring Danny's shouted protest. The re
CHAPTER 78 PART 1
Day twenty seven. Noon.The first scream came from the courtyard of Building 5, high and sharp, cut off so fast that Sean almost thought he had imagined it. He was standing at the villa's second floor window with a mug of tea when the sky above Via dei Pellegrini flashed silver."Danny." Sean's voice went flat. "Lockdown. Now."Danny was already running toward the radio. "How many?""Look up."Danny glanced through the window and froze. A flock of metallic birds filled the sky like a living storm cloud, their wings ringing in the cold air, their feathers flashing in the pale sunlight. Thirty of them. Maybe more."Steel hawks." Danny's voice dropped to a whisper. "Sean, there are dozens.""Thirty, to be exact." Sean set his tea down. "Get on the radio."Danny grabbed the walkie talkie and shouted across the community channel. "All residents, lockdown protocol! Move to interior rooms away from windows! Do not go outside! I repeat, do not go outside!"The radio exploded with overlapping
CHAPTER 77 PART 2
Danny stood at the stairwell entrance, his crossbow raised, his eyes wide. He watched a third pack of rats charge from the east corridor. Sean opened a gate in front of them without even turning to look, his perception guiding the placement through the walls. The rats vanished. The corridor went silent."That's about eighty!" Danny's voice cracked. "Sean, how are you doing that?""Badly." Sean wiped sweat from his forehead. "They're fast."A cluster of fifteen broke away from the main swarm and scrambled up a concrete pillar, heading for the ceiling pipes. Danny raised his crossbow and fired twice, hitting two of them in the exposed underbelly. They fell to the floor, thrashing.Cora appeared on the elevated parking ramp above, her silenced pistol drawn. She picked off three more climbing the far wall with quick, precise shots, each one finding the soft spot behind the rats' ears."Strays on the west side!" Cora called down. "About twenty, heading for the Building 5 stairwell!"Sean s
CHAPTER 77 PART 1
The wolves had barely been dead six hours when the rats came.Danny's walkie talkie screamed to life at dawn with three building representatives shouting over each other, their voices cracking with terror."They're in the drains! Hundreds of them, coming up through the grates!""Building 4 basement is overrun! We can't hold the stairwell door!""Director Miles, please, they're everywhere!"Sean was already pulling on his boots when Danny burst into the kitchen, his face white."Rats." Danny panted. "The drainage tunnels. They're pouring through every grate in the underground garage.""How many?" Sean zipped his jacket to his chin."Every building is reporting contact." Danny's voice shook slightly. "Sean, this isn't a pack. This is a flood."Sean grabbed the walkie talkie and keyed the community channel. "All buildings, seal your stairwell doors immediately. Push furniture against the entrance. Do not attempt to fight them with crossbows. Crossbow bolts are too slow for rats. Wait for
CHAPTER 76 PART 2
He raised his right hand and opened his spatial gate four meters in front of his body. A circle of perfect darkness appeared in the frozen air, hanging motionless between Sean and the charging wolves.The first wolf burst through the fence gap at full speed, jaws wide, green eyes blazing. Sean released six crossbow bolts through a secondary gate aimed at the creature's exposed underbelly. The bolts materialized from nothing, traveling at full velocity, and struck the soft tissue between the wolf's chest plates in a tight cluster.The wolf's front legs buckled. It slid across the ice on its chin and came to rest ten feet from Sean's boots, dead before it stopped moving."One down." Sean did not raise his voice.The second wolf came from the left, faster, smarter, angling its armored skull toward Sean like a battering ram. Sean shifted the spatial gate to intercept. The wolf leaped.It vanished mid air, swallowed by the dark circle hanging in the courtyard. The gate closed behind it wit
CHAPTER 76 PART 1
Day twenty six. Three in the morning.Sean was sitting in the kitchen with a cold cup of coffee when the perimeter alarm shrieked through the villa like a wounded animal. He did not flinch. He set the cup down, stood up, and walked to the window."Danny." His voice was quiet and steady. "Wake everyone up. It's here."Danny was already pulling on his boots in the hallway. "I heard it. How close?"Sean closed his eyes and tilted his head, listening. His enhanced hearing reached past the villa walls, past the courtyard, past the outer fence, and into the frozen darkness beyond. A sound rolled toward him across the snowfield, low and terrible, the scraping of hundreds of clawed feet on frozen ground, growing louder with every second."Half a mile." Sean opened his eyes. "Maybe less. Moving fast.""How many?" Danny grabbed the walkie talkie from the shelf."More than I can count by sound." Sean pulled on his tactical vest. "Get Cora to the east gun. Wilkins to the west. Tell every building
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