The alarms screamed like a chorus of damned souls, their shrill notes slicing through the lab’s thickening smoke. Eka’s eyes burned as she skidded to a halt at the override panel, its screen flickering with error codes. Three minutes glowed red on her tablet—00:03:00—as she slammed her palm against the biometric scanner. It rejected her. Of course. Mei Ling had locked her out.
“Override, you bastard,” Eka hissed, jamming a USB drive into the port. Her custom malware flooded the system, a digital blitzkrieg tearing through firewalls. Security lockdown protocols dissolved; fire suppression systems sputtered and died. The panel beeped, green light flashing. Done.