Chapter 867
The moment Skye slotted the last gem into place, all four stones began to hum — a low, resonant vibration that seemed to rise through the floor and into her bones.
Parker groaned. “The map… I see it. It’s not in my blood. It’s in the stones. When you put them together, they project.”
“Project what?” Skye asked.
“The location of the Architect’s Hub,” Parker said, his voice suddenly clear and steady. “Zurich was a decoy. Nevada was a holding pen. The real heart — it’s here.”
“Here?”
“Beneath us,” Parker said. “Beneath Sea City. The Founders built a city on top of a machine.”
Above them, an explosion rocked the house. Dust rained from the ceiling.
“They’re breaching,” Skye said.
The main hall of the Vance Estate had become a kill zone.
𝘙𝗼𝗺𝖺𝗻с𝘦 n𝗈𝘷е𝘭s о𝗇 𝗴𝗮𝘭𝘯𝘰v𝗲𝘭ѕ.c𝘰𝘮
Alistair crouched behind an overturned marble table, firing controlled bursts at the mercenaries pouring through the front windows.
“Flank left!” he shouted.
Felix slid across the polished floor with both pistols drawn, taking out two attackers in quick succession. Above them, Lucian worked the balcony with a hunting rifle, picking off targets with terrifying precision.
“They’re suppressing us!” Felix yelled as bullets chewed through the wood paneling inches from his head.
“Julian!” Alistair shouted into his comms. “Do you have the surprise ready?”
“Deploying countermeasures.” Julian’s voice was perfectly calm over the earpiece. “Three… two… one.”
A sharp hiss filled the room. The vents erupted — not with water, but with a thick, yellow-grey cloud.
“Tear gas! Masks!” Alistair yanked a gas mask from his belt and snapped it on.
The mercenaries had none. They buckled immediately — coughing, choking, hands clawing at their burning eyes.
“Clear the room!” Alistair ordered.
He vaulted the table and moved through the fog like a wraith, engaging the blinded mercenaries in close-quarters combat. Bone crunched. Men screamed. Within two minutes, the hall was silent.
Alistair ripped off his mask. “Status?”
“Perimeter was breached, but the hall is clear,” Lucian reported. “More coming from the south lawn.”
“We can’t hold them forever,” Felix said, reloading.
The floor beneath them trembled. A low, grinding sound resonated up from the depths of the house.
“What is that?” Lucian asked.
“Skye,” Alistair realized. “She’s accessing the data.”
In the panic room, Skye watched as the four stones projected a three-dimensional hologram of Sea City above the console — but not the city as it stood today. This was the foundation. The skeleton beneath the skin.
“There,” Parker said, his finger trembling as he pointed. “Under the bay. The tectonic plate.”
“The machine,” Skye whispered. “It’s a Geothermal Stabilizer. The Founders built it to harness the volcanic vents under the harbor for limitless energy. But it was too dangerous. They shut it down.”
“The Mastermind isn’t trying to control the city,” Parker realized, the clarity returning to his eyes. “He’s trying to destabilize it. If he overloads that machine, he can trigger a localized earthquake. He can hold the entire city hostage.”
“It’s blackmail,” Skye said. “He wants to level the old districts — wipe out the evidence of the families’ sins and rebuild the city in his image.”