Chapter 58 - The Hunter’s Net
The words struck David harder than any bullet, but his hand didn't shake.
"It doesn't matter," David said, his voice cold as absolute zero. "Because the script ends today."
Cassandra pulled the trigger.
David ducked sideways, the bullet grazing his cheek, ripping a hot groove of flesh. In the same motion, David fired two rounds. The first struck Cassandra’s right shoulder, spinning her violently against the frame of the Suburban. The chrome pistol clattered into the slush. The second round blew out the vehicle's rear tire, disabling any chance of escape.
Cassandra slumped against the running board, clutching her shattered shoulder, gasping as blood soaked through her designer coat.
David walked up to her, his boots crunching on the broken glass, and pressed the hot barrel of his gun directly against the bridge of her nose.
"Give me the override code for 409's regulator," David said.
Cassandra looked up at him, her lips pulling back in a blood-slicked snarl. "Go to hell, Sterling."
David didn't argue. He reached down, grabbed her wounded right arm, and twisted it two inches.
Cassandra shrieked—a raw, guttural sound that echoed across the empty railyard.
"The code," David repeated, his voice dangerously calm. "I have no mother left to disappoint, Cassandra. I have no conscience left to hold me back. Give me the code, or I start cutting fingers until you run out of digits."
"Alpha... Alpha-Seven-Niner-Zero!" she screamed, tears of agony cutting through the grime on her face. "Entered into the tactical uplink in the dashboard! It’s in the glove compartment! It permanently unlinks the cardiac shunt!"
David hauled her up by her collar and dragged her to the passenger door. On the dashboard, an encrypted military tablet was mounted to the console. He keyed in the sequence: *A-7-9-0*.
The screen flashed bright green:
*BIOMETRIC REGULATION DECOUPLED. ASSET 409 TRANSFERRED TO AUTONOMOUS PHYSIOLOGY. SIGNAL BROADCAST TERMINATED.*
Three miles away in the signal tower, the agonizing whine in the baby's wristband finally fell completely silent. Asset 409 drew a full, deep breath of mountain air and drifted into a natural, peaceful sleep.
David looked down at Cassandra, who was panting on the floor of the vehicle, looking up at him with hatred that could melt steel.
"The Board... will never stop hunting you, David," she whispered, coughing up red froth. "You can't hide two prototypes. They light up every genetic database on Earth. The moment you walk into a hospital, a school, an airport... the Syndicate will know."
"Then I guess we won't walk into any of those places," David said.
He leveled his gun.
"Wait!" Cassandra gasped, sudden, pure terror overtaking her arrogance. "Wait! There’s someone else! Julian wasn't the head of the Board! He was just the technician! The Chairman... the Chairman is—"
*BOOM!*
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A high-velocity, heavy-caliber round obliterated the rear window of the Suburban from behind them, passing through Cassandra’s skull before David could even react. Her body went instantly limp, collapsing onto the floorboards.
***
