Five minutes remaining.
The mechanical voice echoed through the control room.
Every screen flashed red.
I ripped my arm free from Julian’s grip.
“Stop it!”
He didn’t even flinch.
“The explosives can’t be stopped.”
“They’re on an independent timer.”
I lunged toward the control panel.
Before I could touch it, two guards caught me.
“Let me go!”
I fought with everything I had.
“If anything happens to him—”
Julian’s expression hardened.
“It won’t.”
I froze.
He had answered too quickly.
Too confidently.
“You don’t want Lucien dead.”
I whispered.
His silence told me everything.
⸻
Back inside the tunnel…
Lucien ignored the falling debris.
Together, he and Damien pulled at the broken slabs trapping Victor.
Another explosion shook the passage.
Chunks of stone crashed around
