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

stood ten feet apart. “You two, I need you to figure out how this thing is being powered. That guy said something about Quantium. Find out if you can reverse the flow of power. If you can, we may be able to shut this thing down—like pulling a plug.” He picked up a radio on the end of the table and tossed it to Alex, then jerked another from Klaus’ belt. “Call me on this if you find a solution.”

Tara and Alex nodded.

“You got it, chief,” Tara said with a playful glance at Tommy.

Tommy shook his head but said nothing.

“Start with this guy,” Sean said, pointing at the scientist who’d given him the directions. “He seems to know something.”

The man turned his head slowly toward Alex and Tara and grimaced, as if expecting some kind of torture.

“Gladly,” Alex said in his best tough-guy voice.

A klaxon abruptly pierced the room. Everyone collectively winced at the invasive, brain-scrambling sound.

Sean returned his weapon to the man he’d just referenced. “Who did that?”

The scientists shook his head vigorously, the fear of death filling his eyes. “I don’t know. It wasn’t me.” He looked on his computer screen at a map of the facility. “It came from the next floor up.”

Sean sighed. Someone found the bodies.

“That didn’t take long.” He looked at Tommy, Adriana, and Niki. “Okay, gang. Let’s go save the world.”

“Again,” Tommy added.

“Yeah,” Sean agreed. “Again.”

48

Svalbard

Tabitha held her pistol just below chest level, turning it from time to time so it aimed at a different member of the control room crew. Emily, Dak, and June all did the same while Alex and Tara scrolled through the tablet Klaus had been holding.

The German’s nosebleed had slowed but still seeped through his fingers. His lab coat was soaked in red, and he continued dabbing at his nostrils with the fabric to stem the flow.

“Can someone turn that stupid alarm off?” Alex shouted over the piercing sound.

Dak raised his pistol and fired a single shot at the device blaring from the corner of the room. The bullet shattered the klaxon, and the room quieted. Only distant sounds of the alarm drifted into the room.

“Thank you,” Alex said.

“I should have done that sooner,” Dak confessed. Then he turned to the rows of workers at the tables. “All right. All of you, into that conference room over there.” He motioned to a long, skinny room off to the right where a boardroom table ran nearly the length of the space.

“We can’t all fit in there,” Klaus said, his swollen nose muting his voice.

“Then I guess it’s going to be real cozy,” Dak said, motioning with his pistol. “Move.”

The workers stood up and made their way toward the boardroom, filing in one at a time until the glass windows along the wall were near to bursting. Klaus was the last to enter. He passed a scathing, fiery glare at Dak, who huffed in response.

“Get in there, Doc.” He kicked the man in the tail and sent him sprawling into the arms of his coworkers.

June slammed the door shut and kicked the latch with her boot, bending it at an awkward angle and effectively locking everyone inside.

“Now what?” Tabitha asked from across the room. She walked over to where the others stood by the rear table closest to the exit. “They’ll be sending guards in here any second.”

Emily pointed at the door. “This room makes a perfect kill box,” she said. “The first wave will rush in. We’ll cut them down. The second wave will be more careful, sending teams in by twos or fours to sweep the corners. That means we need to have someone positioned in each of the near corners, along with a frontal offensive from the center of the room.” She motioned to the third row of tables. “Tabitha, Dak, Alex and Tara, take positions behind that row. Flip over the tables in front to give you cover. That should be enough to keep any bullets from getting through. June, you and I will take the corners and pick them off from the flanks as they charge through.”

“You’ll be exposed,” Dak said. “No offense, ma’am, but I’ll be happy to take one of the corners.”

“Me, too,” Alex offered.

“I appreciate your chivalrous offer, boys. But we’ll be fine. Now, if we’re done discussing this in the committee, we need to get in position.”

Dak grinned. “I like you,” he said, waving a finger at her.

Then he turned and flipped over one of the tables. Tabitha and the others joined in until they’d established the makeshift fortification prescribed by Emily. The four hurried around behind it and crouched low.

Alex kept scanning through the information on the tablet, trying to find a way to reverse the flow of energy as Sean suggested. The other three readied their weapons, leaning close to the table’s underside as they waited.

Emily and June stood in the corners with pistols drawn. Each carried four additional magazines on their belts.

Footsteps echoed from down the hall near the elevator, signaling that the troops were on their way.

Emily looked over at June and held her pistol at an angle toward the back corner of the control room—making sure she wouldn’t hit her friend and partner with the crossfire. June did the same.

Eight guards rushed into the room, albeit somewhat cautiously. They entered with their knees bent, moving fast toward the center where the tables were flipped over. Five steps in, June and Emily unleashed a deadly volley of rounds, peppering the two men in the rear of the column. The two in the middle and two in front spun around only to catch hot metal from behind the tables as Dak and the others opened fire.

The gunmen dropped like bricks to the floor, all dying almost instantly as bullets tore through vital organs or skulls.

More poured into the room, this time fanning out wider, but running face-first into bullets flying in from every angle.

Within sixty seconds, eighteen guards lay dead on the floor at the entrance