The self-destruct countdown echoed through the NEST's corridors on loop. Red emergency lights turned the white walls the color of blood.
Ryan took point, X-ray vision at full spread. The NEST's tangled three-dimensional layout read like a holographic map in his head, and the two of them cut through the core zone at a dead sprint with almost nothing slowing them down. They reached the final obstacle between them and the train platform: the Abyss Bridge.
A steel-frame span suspended over a hundred-meter drop. Two meters wide. No railings. Nothing below but black. At the far end sat the last heavy security door leading to the platform. Ryan's feet hit the bridge and locked.
"Why'd you stop?" Ada nearly walked into his back.
He said nothing. His eyes were fixed on the shadows at the bridge's center.
From the darkness came a wet, grinding sound. Teeth on meat. Cartilage tearing.
A roar.
The shape in the shadows sensed them and turned.
G3 William Birkin.
Nothing human remained. Half his body was encased in a grotesque shell of gray-white keratin, overgrown and warped, like a suit of biological plate armor. His left arm had mutated into three bone-white claws, each several meters long, curved like scythes. On his right shoulder, a single massive eyeball the size of a barrel rolled wildly in its socket, threaded with burst blood vessels, radiating nothing but chaos and rage.
That eye locked onto Ryan. Onto the G-Virus sample in his chest pouch.
"Great." Ada drew her suppressed pistol. "Company again."
"Relax." Ryan pulled the Desert Eagle. "One guard dog. I'll handle it. You find an opening and get across."
William roared, fully enraged, and charged like a runaway tank. The three bone claws ripped through the air with a sonic crack and came hammering down on top of him.
Ryan stood his ground. The claws were a hair from splitting his skull when he kicked into a hard slide to the right.
Steel screamed. Sparks erupted. The claws punched three gaping tears through the bridge plating. From his low crouch, Ryan angled the barrel up at a vicious angle and put two rounds straight into the massive eye on William's right shoulder.
Dark green fluid burst from the wound. William shrieked and flailed, his claws smashing blindly into the bridge deck.
"Now! Run!" Ryan didn't look back.
Ada didn't hesitate. She slipped through the gap at William's flank like a streak of red and sprinted for the security door on the far side.
Then the bridge gave out.
The repeated impacts had been too much for the steel structure. A deafening crack, and the section under Ryan's feet buckled and dropped away.
He lost his footing and fell straight toward the black.
Ada whipped around from the far side. She saw him falling and threw herself at the broken edge, arm outstretched. Her fingers closed on empty air.
Weightlessness took him. Half a meter into the fall, Ryan lashed out with his left hand and caught a piece of rebar jutting from the fractured edge. His grip held. His body slammed to a stop.
Pain ripped through his left arm. He could feel the muscle fibers tearing under the shock of his full weight, the joint grinding toward dislocation.
William spotted him dangling there and charged again, right arm raised to crush him against the edge.
Ada planted herself at the broken lip of the bridge and opened fire, emptying rounds into William's path, putting her own body between the monster and Ryan.
"Move! Don't be stupid!"
Ryan roared through the pain, core and hips wrenching with everything he had. One arm. One pull-up. He hauled himself over the edge and hit the bridge deck rolling, scooping Ada around the waist and carrying them both clear of William's strike zone in a tangle of limbs.
They came to a stop on cold steel, Ryan on top of her. He reached into his shirt, ripped the waterproof pouch free, and shoved it hard into her arms.
"Take it and run!" He dragged her upright and pushed her toward the security door on the far side. "Straight through to the train platform. Leon and the others are there. Keep running. Don't look back."
"What about you?!" She clutched the pouch. Her voice shook.
"Rear guard." He turned to face the bridge, racked the Desert Eagle's slide. "You stay here, you die. Go."
Her eyes went red. She forced it down, took one long look at his back, and ran for the security door at full speed.
The heavy door boomed shut behind her. Ryan let out a breath. He turned to face the raging thing on the bridge, and every trace of warmth left his expression.
"Good. Audience is gone." He rolled his shoulders. "Round two."