The Milestone Protocol by Ernest Dempsey (best books to read in your 20s txt) 📕

“I’m working on it,” Alex insisted.

His fingers tapped over buttons as he tried to align a green wavelength on the screen with a blue one that represented the signal he was trying to send.

The elevator continued its descent. The group watched the door with their weapons drawn.

“Almost there,” Alex said. “Nearly got it.”

The blue jagged line overlapped the green one with a perfect match, and Alex tapped an Enter key on the side of the screen. The image locked in place and he looked up. “Got it.”

Just in time, Sean thought. The elevator slowed and within seconds eased to a stop.

When the lift doors opened, Sean’s instincts were proved correct. A wide passage opened up in front of them, and a dozen armed guards loitered around crates and plastic tubs stacked up to the ceiling. Beyond the cluster of soldiers, the corridor extended out at least three hundred yards, with doors lining the wall all the way to the other end.

Sean didn’t need a placard to tell him this was the storage facility for the coming cataclysm.

The first guard looked over at the elevator from ten feet away. He didn’t even have time to appear surprised as Sean squeezed the trigger. Sean shot the man in the head, then systematically, and with lethal speed, fired again and again before the next two men could react.

One guy was sipping a cup of coffee when he caught a bullet to the temple from Tommy as he exited the elevator. Dak and Adriana joined them, and within twenty seconds were surrounded by dead guards. There were no survivors.

“Get those four off the elevator,” Sean said while Alex held the button to keep the door open.

Tommy stuffed his pistol back into his holster and started dragging out one of the original four guards while June held the man’s feet.

Dak and Tabitha watched the corridor as Sean and Adriana worked on another body. Tara and Niki joined in, dragging a third out.

When the fourth guard was pulled from the lift, the team got back on, and Alex let the button go, allowing the door to close.

Everyone checked their magazines. Sean and Tommy ejected theirs and replaced them with full ones.

“I hope they didn’t see that,” Sean said to Alex, who continued to watch the screen on his device.

“They didn’t,” Alex said, unhurt by the doubt. “I hijacked the signal. All they’re going to get is a continuous ten second loop of the camera angles from two minutes ago.”

“Nice,” Sean said with a grim smile.

The elevator slowed again, and the group readied their weapons.

When the doors opened, Sean blinked several times as he took in the scene.

The control room opened into a wide square. Computer workstations lined the walls and filled rows of tables in the center. Dozens of people worked frantically.

Beyond them, through a huge glass window, Sean saw a portion of the pyramid rising up into the mountain within a hollowed-out chamber that could have held several tall buildings.

A tall, skinny man in a white lab coat whirled around and saw the group standing inside. The occupants had only enough time to conceal their weapons behind their backs before the scientist saw them.

“Delivery?” the wiry man asked, pushing his glasses higher up on the bridge of his nose. “You’re on the wrong floor,” he said, giving no time for Sean to answer. “Next floor up.”

Sean stepped out of the elevator and raised his pistol, aiming it at the man’s head as he stalked toward him.

Stunned, the man in the lab coat staggered back a step toward a panel on the far left of a long table filled with computers.

“What is the meaning of this? Who are you?”

The rest of the team fanned out, spreading quickly through the room. The people working the computer stations looked around suddenly, their heads twisting back and forth. The element of surprise had worked, but Sean knew there would be some kind of security system here somewhere.

The scientist in the white lab coat stumbled to the panel and felt around with his left hand underneath the table.

“I don’t think so,” Sean said, pressing the muzzle to the man’s cheekbone. “Don’t do that.”

“Do what?” the man asked, trying to sound innocent. It was unconvincing, to say the least.

Sean grabbed him by the collar and held him upright. “Where is he?”

“Where is who?”

Sean looked at the ID tag hanging from the man’s neck. “Klaus, is it? I’m going to be real clear, Klaus, even though I know you know who I mean. Where is Magnus, the one you call Odin?”

“Oh. Him. Well, he’s—”

“Two seconds, Klaus.”

“You’re too late,” Klaus said with a false whiff of bravado. “The sequence has already begun. He and Dr. Clark are in the pyramid’s control center. Any second now, the—”

Sean reared his hand back and smashed the pistol into the man’s nose. Klaus dropped the tablet and crumpled to the floor next to it, grabbing at his nose as blood oozed from his nostrils.

“Which way to the pyramid?” Sean shouted, brandishing his pistol around the room until he settled on the closest person to him, aiming the gun at the young scientist’s head. Desperation filled his eyes, the kind that could scare even the most hardened warrior.

The computer-station worker was of Asian descent. A combination of fear and vitriol stretched across his face, but he raised a finger toward a corridor to the left.

“Down the elevator. Go straight ahead after you exit it.”

“Thank you,” Sean said. “You get to live. A little longer, anyway.” He glanced derisively at the tattoo on the man’s neck. “Em?” Sean said, rounding on his old partner. “Can you and Dak hold down the fort here with the others? I’m going after Sorenson.”

“I think we can handle it.”

“I’m coming with you,” Tommy said.

“Me too,” Niki added.

Adriana moved closer to him. “It is my duty to end this.”

Sean rolled his eyes. “Okay, fine. But not everyone gets dibs on Sorenson.” He looked to Alex and Tara, who