Damnation Code (William Massa) - William Massa Page 0,51

other engineers sealed their computers and rose to their feet, their empty eyes fixating on her now. She held up her pistol even though she knew this crowd wouldn’t be intimidated by the weapon. These men and women were beyond reason. Beyond any instinct for self-preservation. These were slaves to a digital master she couldn’t comprehend. She was up against a seething mob of fanatics who all shared the same goal…

Murder.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

TALON FELT HIS life draining away.

The tendons in his neck stood out like cords and his temple pulsed. Zagan’s nightmarish robot skull-face dripped gore. The one weapon that could offer Talon a fighting chance remained tantalizingly out of his reach. He was about to succumb to the inhuman pressure on his windpipe when his darkening gaze landed on...

Michelle.

She had materialized about thirty feet behind Zagan. This wasn’t the broken woman who’d perished in his blood-soaked arms. This Michelle was a vision to behold. She looked the way she did when he proposed to her in the park. Beautiful. Untouched by death. Full of life.

Sadness welled up inside him but he drew a strange comfort from the idea that they might be reunited soon. To his surprise, instead of welcoming the possibility of his passing, Michelle whispered one word that changed everything.

Live.

Talon’s bloodshot gaze traveled back to Zagan. He took in the pulsing servers. Remembered the stakes. This wasn’t about him or personal vengeance any longer. Three hundred Omicron workers were in danger of committing suicide. Who knew how many lives would be lost if this hellish program infiltrated the operating system of every Omicron device in the world?

Talon had dedicated his life to keeping his country safe. He’d sworn to protect America against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Zagan couldn’t be allowed to win.

Tapping into the last of his dwindling reserves of strength, Talon reached for the pentacle around his neck and pushed it against Zagan’s hand, hoping this desperate move might have some sort of effect.

And it did.

As soon as the amulet made contact with Zagan, he roared with savage agony and let go of Talon. The Delta operator crashed to the floor and rolled away. He scanned his surroundings and locked on the Demon Slayer. Killer instinct flashed in his eyes as he scooped up the magical knife. Tapping into his rage, he honed his fury until its razor edge rivaled the blade in his hand. This was for everyone Zagan had sacrificed in his mad quest for power.

For Erik.

For Michelle.

His hand tightened around the blade and spun, steel slicing in a lethal arc. He slashed Zagan’s chest, once, twice before driving the weapon deep into the cyborg-demon’s heart. The Demon Slayer penetrated metal, circuitry and tissue to find the abomination’s pulsating heart.

Zagan bellowed and the server room shook with his roars of pain. He stumbled back and clutched the hilt of the blade sticking from his chest. Before he could liberate it from his flesh, Talon’s leg flashed out in a roundhouse kick that drove the handle of the knife even deeper into Zagan’s ribcage.

A second later, the charges ignited back to life and the ticking countdown resumed. Weakened by the attack, Zagan’s power over reality was growing more tenuous.

Two minutes left before the explosives would go off - two minutes for Talon to get the hell out of here.

Talon spun around and dashed toward the control deck. As he sprinted down the passage of pulsating servers, he searched for Michelle but saw no sign of his love. Had a trick of his imagination conjured her into existence? Or had Michelle somehow communicated from the beyond? Talon didn’t have the answer. All he knew was that her presence, imagined or not, had given him the necessary strength he needed to defeat Zagan.

Talon reached the elevator and punched the call button. Sensing movement behind him, he pivoted toward his pursuer. The biomechanical monster lurching toward him was barely human, a cyberpunk nightmare of fizzling robotics and bleeding meat.

Talon squeezed off round after round, pumping lead into the withering demon. The fusillade sent Zagan stumbling backward.

The elevator doors slammed shut just as the first charge went off. Metal warped under the blast and Zagan’s bestial shriek of defeat gave way to the deafening sound of an enormous explosion.

Shockwaves rattled the lift, but it continued its ascend. A beat later Talon reached the Omicron lobby and spilled into the atrium. Two steps farther from the destruction, the rest of Talon’s explosives erupted in the basement below. The floor shook