Chapter 295: Upgraded B

The long-range supersonic transport flew through the midnight sky above the Mediterranean, its engines leaving a thin white trail behind it.

Inside the pressurized cabin, nobody spoke.

The cabin had been stripped down to the essentials. In the center of the bay, secured to the floor, were the two reinforced containment cases. Even beneath layers of protection and stasis seals, the emerald Earth Stone and the Crimson Fire Stone still gave off faint pulses of energy. The air was dry and carried a faint metallic smell.

Selena stood before the main navigation console, her face lit by the blue glow of the display. She had discarded her scorched jacket from the Andes and changed into a fresh dark combat outfit, her sidearm secured at her hip.

"We have thirty minutes before we enter Egyptian airspace," Selena said, breaking the silence. "The flight corridor has been cleared through Cairo under Association priority. But our destination isn’t Cairo."

She swiped across the display, bringing up a map of northern Egypt.

"Seventy miles northwest of the delta." Selena pointed to a barren stretch of land where the green river basin gave way to endless dunes. "The Qattara Depression. Fifty years ago, when the plague catalyst spread across the region, a massive sinkhole opened in the limestone. The local authorities believed it was a natural collapse, so they buried it beneath concrete and sand. But Ikar’s parchment identified it as the resting place of the Azure Storm Stone."

Zero sat across the aisle with his back against the wall. He slowly ran an oiled whetstone along the edge of his longsword, the soft sound of steel against stone filling the cabin.

The purple gemstone set into the sword’s guard flickered with sharp bursts of violet light. It wasn’t reacting to either of the stones secured on the floor. Instead, it was responding to something far to the east, across the sea.

"The stone is already singing," Zero said, his voice calm and flat. "The Qi in the sky over the depression is changing. The sky there is bleeding."

Vixen leaned against the wall beside the cockpit door, casually tossing a small metal sphere between her hands. Every few seconds, she warped it through a tiny spatial rift, making it disappear from one hand before dropping back into the other.

"If B has a three-hour head start, he’s already there," Vixen said, catching the sphere. "He knows the layout of the vault from the files he stole in Sub-Level 9. Can he just walk in and take it?"

"The parchment warned that every master stone was protected by an ancient safeguard," Selena replied as she brought up the translated notes. "Ikar didn’t leave these stones sitting in the open. The Earth Stone had the petrified leviathan. The Fire Stone was consumed by the volcanic impure host. The Azure Storm Stone is sealed inside a submerged necropolis, protected by an ancient barrier connected to the Nile’s deep aquifers."

"Which means B has to break the barrier before he can reach the stone," Nicholas said.

He sat on the forward jump seat with his elbows resting on his knees, his dark blue eyes fixed on the vibrating floor. He hadn’t slept since they left the Andes. His dark hair had fallen slightly over his forehead, but he looked completely relaxed.

In his former life as an assassin, a failed contract was simple. You didn’t panic because your target had escaped. You figured out where they were going next, caught up with them, and finished the job.

"He won’t try to carefully open that vault," Nicholas continued. "B fights with brute force. The shard in his chest gives him an enormous amount of raw power, but he doesn’t have much control over it. To break an ancient barrier, he’ll have to pour everything he has into it. By the time we arrive, he’ll probably be in the middle of tearing the vault apart."

"And that’s when we hit him," Selena said with a nod.

"No," Nicholas corrected quietly, meeting her eyes. "That’s when I hit him. You, Zero, and Vixen secure the area. Dr. Vance’s people didn’t break B out of Sub-Level 9 for fun. They want the stones for their own research. If B is at the site, Vance’s stronger impures will probably be guarding the surface."

From the far corner of the cabin came a weak, trembling whimper.

Julie was huddled beneath an oversized fleece blanket, with only her nose and pink hair sticking out. She hugged her camera like it was a life vest. Her face was pale, dark circles sat beneath her eyes, and her lips were dry from the sudden changes between volcanic heat and freezing air conditioning.

"I survived a walking mountain of lava," Julie whispered, her voice shaking. "I survived a fifty-foot rock scorpion. I survived having forty tons of basalt thrown at my forehead. And now we’re flying straight toward a psycho clone who literally carved a death threat into a titanium blast door."

She slowly turned the camera toward Nicholas and pressed the record button.

"Phantom," Julie rasped, pointing the lens at his expressionless face. "For the love of all that is holy, please look into this camera and tell the four million people watching this live update that you have a plan that doesn’t involve me getting turned into ionized vapor by alien storm magic."

Nicholas didn’t blink.

"Keep the camera rolling from the cargo ramp," he said. "And remember our contract. Thirty percent of all revenue generated from the Mediterranean archive."

Julie’s jaw dropped.

She lowered the camera slightly and stared at him in disbelief.

"We are flying into a category-six storm to fight an evil clone backed by an underground terrorist syndicate, and you’re auditing my tax bracket?!" Julie shrieked, clutching her head. "You’re not a superhero! You’re an IRS auditor with superpowers! I am living in an absolute nightmare!"

Vixen burst into genuine laughter, breaking the tension in the cabin. Zero simply shook his head and slid his longsword into its back scabbard with a sharp click.

"Descent initiated," the pilot’s voice came through the overhead speakers, tense and urgent. "Approaching the northern Egyptian coast. We’re descending below five thousand feet. The conditions ahead are... abnormal. You need to see this."

Selena hit the release switch for the viewing shutters.

The heavy steel plates slid away from the windows, revealing the night sky.

Nobody spoke.

The Mediterranean coastline stretched across the distance, a dark blue line separating the sea from the pale desert. But thirty miles inland, above the jagged limestone cliffs of the Qattara Depression, the sky looked like it was tearing apart.

A massive cyclone of bright cyan and azure lightning filled the horizon. Unlike the chaotic firestorm they had faced in the Andes, this storm was almost perfectly shaped, a huge vortex of freezing air and powerful winds stretching down from the sky.

Thick arcs of blue lightning crashed from the clouds, striking the desert with flashes so bright that the dunes seemed to turn into sheets of glowing green glass.

And at the center of the storm, standing on the broken entrance of an ancient sandstone temple half-buried beneath the sand, stood a lone figure.

Even from miles away, the violent Qi surrounding him was unmistakable.

The transport aircraft entered the outer edge of the storm.

The entire aircraft shook as powerful winds slammed against the hull.

"Opening the rear bay!" Selena shouted as she hit the ramp controls.

The rear hatch groaned and slowly opened into the raging wind. Dry desert heat rushed into the cabin, mixed with the freezing air of the storm and the sharp metallic smell of ozone.

Nicholas stood at the edge of the ramp, his dark coat snapping in the wind. His dark blue eyes remained fixed on the distant figure standing above the sunken necropolis.

Through the storm, the figure on the ground slowly lifted his head.

Two miles away, surrounded by flashing azure lightning, B looked up at the approaching transport.

His eyes burned with violent violet light, while the emerald shard in his chest pulsed brightly. He raised one hand toward the aircraft, a wide, jagged grin spreading across his face and revealing blood-stained teeth.

B clenched his fist.

High above the desert, the azure cyclone suddenly contracted.

A massive two-hundred-foot spear made of blue lightning and compressed air formed in the center of the storm, hanging directly above the aircraft’s cockpit.

It was aimed straight at them.

And it was ready to tear the plane out of the sky before their boots ever touched the sand.