Ch.29: Leo's Sacrifice

The sweet, cloying vapor filled the room, visible in the blue strobe of the server lights. My vision blurred instantly, the edges of the server racks softening into gray smears. My knees buckled, hitting the cold floor with a dull thud.

"Elena, cover your face!" Leo’s voice sounded miles away.

He didn't succumb. He lunged for the server terminal, grabbing a heavy steel paperweight from the desk. With a roar of primal effort, he swung it at the ceiling.

*CRACK.*

The plastic casing of the intake vent shattered. He swung again, the metal paperweight denting the steel mesh behind it.

*CLANG. CLANG.*

The grill gave way, hanging by a single screw. Leo reached up, his muscles straining against his shirt, and ripped the entire unit from the ceiling. Behind it lay a dark, square maintenance shaft—the narrow artery for the building's cooling system.

"Go!" he gasped, coughing as he inhaled a lungful of the gas. He cupped his hands, forming a step. "Up! Now!"

I scrambled to my feet, my head spinning so violently I nearly fell back. I stepped into his interlaced fingers and he hoisted me upward with explosive strength. I grabbed the lip of the shaft, my fingernails scraping against raw metal.

The opening was tiny. A jagged, narrow square of darkness.

I tried to pull myself up, but the sedative was already turning my muscles to lead. I was too slow. My hips wedged against the frame.

"I can't fit!" I choked out, the white fog rising to my chest. "Leo, it's too small for both of us!"

He didn't answer. He just shoved my feet, forcing me deeper into the hole. The metal edges sliced through my gray dress, biting into my skin, but I didn't feel the pain. I only felt the desperate pressure of his hands.

"Go, Elena," he rasped. His voice was thick, his breathing becoming a wet, heavy rattle.

I looked back down. He was already swaying on his feet. He could have climbed up if I wasn't in the way, but there wasn't enough time for two. Not with the gas. Not with the door.

The heavy steel door began to vibrate. The electronic lock screeched as the override was triggered from the outside.

"Leo, come on!" I reached a shaking hand back down toward him.

He looked up at me, his eyes bloodshot and watering, but filled with a sudden, devastating clarity. He didn't reach back. Instead, he grabbed a heavy server blade from the rack and jammed it into the door’s internal mechanism, a final act of sabotage to buy me seconds.

"Save our daughter," he whispered.

The door burst open.

Thorne’s security team flooded the room in tactical masks, their boots loud against the epoxy. I saw the first guard lunge.

I looked back to see Leo tackled by security guards. I ran.