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Clicking in the dark. Hissing.

An ear-splitting roar and acrashas two of the creatures broke out into a fight, knocking over something that shattered. Max felt an object roll into his boot. Dallas hung onto the back of his jacket. Together, everyone clinging to each other, they made it to the back wall.

“Hold on,” Tanner said. “I’m going to pass you to Roark.”

The line crackled. Nobody made a sound as the monsters screamed and bit each other, not five feet behind them.

“Max?” Roark said. “Roark here. Can you hear me?”

“Loud and clear,” Max said. Sweat trickled down his spine.

“There are two cupboards in front of you. I’m going to need you to feel around and open the doors of the one farthest to your left.”

Max followed Roark’s instructions. The others stayed close as he let go of their hands and felt around, locating the cupboard that was farthest to his left. Then he opened the doors and rummaged around in the cupboard, praying he was grabbing the right thing. If they got all the way out of here, only to discover he didn’t have the right syringes…

Roark said, “It should feel like a small black travel case with a zip closure.”

“I think I got it.”

“Open it. There should be twelve syringes in each. You’ll need two cases.”

Max ran his fingertips across the syringes, counting twelve in each travel case. “I count twelve in each,” he said.

“Good. They’re the only item in Lucent Enterprises that is stored in such a way. I don’t believe it’s possible to mess this up.”

“All right,” Max said. “Thanks.”

“I’ll hand you back to Tanner.”

“Dad,” Dallas gasped.

A pause.

“I just want to say—if we don’t make it out of here… I just…” An audible swallow. Her hand tightened around Max’s, and he squeezed it in encouragement. “I want you to know?—”

“Dallas, youwill,”Roark said. Fiercer, he repeated, “Youwillmake it out of there. Say it with me.”

Another swallow, and then Dallas said on a shaky whisper, “I will. I will make it out of here.”

“I’ll see you at home in a couple of days,” Roark said, in a tone far softer than Max had ever heard him use. “Okay?”

Dallas inhaled, the sound smoother now than before. Max could sense that her aura had calmed. “Okay.”

“See you soon,” he said again.

A crackle, and then Tanner got back on. “All right—turn around. Let’s get you out of there.”

Max was sweating so badly, the cold air made him feel wet.

They were almost out of the room when the building began to shake. It grew to an unholy magnitude. Glass shattered down the hallway.

It stopped as abruptly as it started.

“Atlas?” Max gritted out.

“No.” Atlas’s whisper was barely audible.“No, no, no.”

Max’s heart started to race. “Atlas? What’s going on?”