Sublevel 5 vibrated with alarms as Delilah slammed Laura into the reinforced wall. The girl rebounded like a ricochet, claws flashing, eyes wild and unfocused—feral green fire trapped behind a face too young to understand what she'd become.
Taskmaster whipped a baton in a clean arc, blocking a swipe meant for Sarah's throat, "This is unsustainable," he hissed.
"No kidding!" Delilah snapped, ducking another strike, "We're not killing her, remember?"
Taskmaster slipped under Laura's next lunge, "Then delay her harder."
Delilah elbowed him on reflex, "Just shut up and do it."
She wasn't thinking. She was reacting.
Delilah pressed her comm as she rolled under a slash meant for her eyes, "Sable, take down Rice. Do it as fast as possible."
A small pause—then Silver Sable's voice, cool and hard as steel, "Understood."
Sable and Domino arrived at the massive bulkhead blocking access to sublevel 4. Smoke drifted from the corridors; automated turrets sparked on the ground from previous encounters.
Domino flicked her gaze to the sealed door. "They're in that direction, right?"
"Yes," Sable said. "And the second target is watching them."
Delilah didn't need to say more; both women heard the unspoken truth. If Rice kept them sealed, the girl inside or her mother would eventually die.
Sable pointed at the ceiling grates, "Domino. Ventilation. Get to Rice whilst I distract him."
Domino shrugged. "Sure. You're gonna buy me a new outfit, though."
She leapt, grabbed the grate, prying it open, and disappeared into the ducts with a clang.
Sable stepped directly beneath the nearest security camera. She looked up and smirked as she shot the camera.
Then she walked—slow, unhurried—straight toward the bulkhead, as if daring Rice to react.
Back in the locked room, Laura tore a metal panel off the wall and hurled it with immense force like a spinning saw, breaking her arm. Delilah caught it with both hands, boots skidding on the floor. Laura then rushed to kill Sarah, having created an opening.
Taskmaster lunged forward, wrenching Laura's wrist away from Sarah. "Kid!" he barked. "You don't want to do—"
Laura slashed his mask open from brow to cheek.
Taskmaster staggered, "…Okay. She wants to."
Sarah screamed, "Laura, stop! Please!"
Her daughter didn't flinch. Didn't soften. Didn't know her.
The scent was too strong. Conditioning absolute.
"She won't hear you," Delilah said, shoving Laura backward. "From what I know, she'll be like this until we break out of the room and wash the scent off."
Back out in the halls, Sable approached, Rice cursed from his terminal, "Stop her. Now."
Dozens of guards scrambled out of side corridors, weapons raised.
Sable raised her pistol—
fired once—and dropped the first guard cleanly.
Then hell erupted.
Gunfire ricocheted off reinforced walls. Sable pivoted, firing in controlled bursts. She was all sharp angles and discipline, every movement measured, every kill economical. She didn't fight with fury—she fought with inevitability.
But there were many of them.
She was pinned within seconds. She smiled, 'Good.'
Rice would have no choice but to pull bodies away from his side.
And upstairs—she already heard the thunder of boots heading for her position.
Exactly as planned.
Inside the vents, Domino crawled silently along the narrow duct, smirking as she heard Sable's gunfight below, "Good, she's so dramatic."
She reached a grate, peered down—and grinned, 'Bingo.'
Dr. Zander Rice stood inside an observation chamber, panicking, trying to call for reinforcements.
Domino kicked the grate open and dropped in like a cat falling onto a counter.
Rice shrieked. He dove for the emergency gun mounted under the console—and, naturally, it slipped from his hand, hit the floor, and discharged.
Right into his own leg.
He screamed.
Domino tilted her head, impressed, "Oof. That's gonna bleed. Bad luck."
Rice tried to crawl toward the fallen gun.
Domino stepped on his hand lightly, "You really should've invested in escape protocols."
She bent down, picked up the gun he had fumbled so badly.
"One last test," she said as she fired.
The bullet pierced his skull with clinical finality.
"Working just fine," she chirped.
Domino scanned the control panel. Buttons everywhere—some labeled, some not.
"I wonder what this does."
She pressed one at random.
The bulkhead slammed open with a mechanical groan.
Delilah didn't waste the moment.
She lunged, tackling Laura mid-charge.
Taskmaster trapped the girl's legs, twisting them into a grapple she couldn't break without dislocating herself.
"Sedate her?" Taskmaster growled.
"No sedatives!" Sarah begged. "Please—she'll metabolize —she—"
"It won't work," Delilah snapped. "We'll just restrain her for now."
Laura snarled ferally, trying to bite Delilah's throat.
Delilah's fist crashed against the side of Laura's head—not enough to break bone, just enough to jar her, "Sorry, kid."
Taskmaster locked her arms, and he pressed a pressure point on her neck to block oxygen to her brain.
Delilah locked her legs.
Laura thrashed—slowed— and finally collapsed.
Unconscious.
Delilah exhaled, "…Good. Let's move."
They cuffed Laura's wrists and ankles with reinforced restraints.
Back in the halls, Sable was still pinned when the other two reached her.
Delilah emerged first, carrying Laura over her shoulder like a ragdoll. Taskmaster fired behind them, clearing the last guard in the stairwell. Sarah followed behind them.
Sable didn't look relieved—just annoyed, "Took you long enough."
Domino sauntered in behind them. "Relax. I got Rice. And I set charges on this level. Can we leave now before we blow up?"
Taskmaster eyed her. "Please tell me you didn't arm them yet."
Domino blinked. "Should I have not?"
Delilah held up a hand, "Looks like you weren't listening, we Sable told us they explode ten minutes after being armed. Sable, how long do we have?"
Sable nodded. "About five to six minutes."
Wasting no time, the group ran to the closest elevator heading for the ground floor. Luckily, they only took a minute to make it to the elevator and a few seconds to reach the ground floor.
The elevator doors opened.
The hallway beyond was a graveyard. Scientists lay where they'd been cut down—clean shots, no struggle.
Silver Sable's Wild Pack stood waiting outside in formation, weapons ready, eyes cold. They snapped to attention when she stepped through the elevator.
Delilah tightened her grip on Laura. "We're done here. Arm the charges and move out."
The team sprinted into the forest, weaving through trees thick with snow. The night air bit at their skin, cold enough to sting lungs.
A roar echoed overhead.
Mack's Puma HC2 helicopter burst through the treeline, rotor wash flattening branches.
Delilah secured Laura against her chest.
Sarah stumbled behind them, sighing with relief.
Silver Sable and the wild pack covered the rear.
Domino strolled like they weren't running for their lives.
Taskmaster kept pace effortlessly.
The rope ladder dropped.
Delilah climbed first, hauling Laura up with one arm.
Sarah followed, shaking but determined.
Taskmaster swung up with casual grace.
Domino hopped on like she'd been waiting all day for this.
Sable boarded last, covering their ascent.
The moment the last boot cleared the forest floor—
Mack pulled the helicopter upward.
The Facility began to vanish beneath them, then seconds later, it exploded in a blaze of fiery explosions, shrinking into a speck of metal and flame.
Sarah couldn't stop staring at Laura's unconscious form.
Her daughter—her weapon—her responsibility.
Delilah also looked down at the unconscious girl cradled in her arms. "Mack, find a place near a lake or something. We got marked with a scent and need to wash it off."
Mack looked back and said, "Sure, the cabin we're headed to has a lake, but I figure the bath inside would work too, right?"
"How come I didn't know about this cabin?" asked Delilah
"Our boss, that bastard Luc, called me an hour ago and told me about it, so now I'm telling you. Got a problem, take it up with the bastard. Apparently, there are new IDs and instructions on what we need to do next. Your boss owes me a bottle of something expensive after this," answered Mack.
But even as the helicopter carved across the Canadian night, Sarah and Laura Kinney were unaware their journey had only begun.