The Ties That Binds のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 81 - チャプター 90

The elevator doors slammed shut behind them with a metallic groan, the sound echoing like a warning across the dim concrete chamber. Savannah stood pressed against Jackson’s side as the elevator shuddered downward, carrying them into the forbidden sublevels beneath Sterling Tower. Her pulse hammered in her throat, each beat loud enough that she was certain Jackson could hear it.“Savannah,” he murmured, lowering his head, “stay close to me. No matter what you see.”Her hand gripped his sleeve, knuckles whitening. “I’m right here.”The elevator rattled violently as though something scraped the outside walls. Cole slammed his palm against the emergency panel.“That’s not structural movement,” he muttered. “We’re being scanned.”“By what?” Savannah whispered.Jackson’s jaw tightened. “Not what. Who.”The elevator dropped abruptly, jerking them downward with stomach-turning force. Savannah lost her balance Jackson caught her waist instantly, holding her upright as the lights flickered ove

Savannah pushed the door open before Jackson could stop her. The metal slammed against the concrete wall, the echo traveling down the abandoned service corridor like a warning shot. Her pulse thundered, loud enough to drown the hum of the backup generators pulsing beneath Sterling Tower. She didn’t care. Not anymore. Not with everything they had just survived. Not with the truth sitting in Jackson’s palm the truth Harrison never intended for them to see.“Savannah slow down,” Jackson called, his footsteps fast behind her.She didn’t slow. “I’m done slowing down. I want answers. All of them.”Cole followed them, clutching the black encrypted drive like it might explode. “Then you’d better brace yourself,” he muttered. “Because this isn’t going to be gentle.”Savannah reached the control room first. The glass was shattered from their earlier escape, shards scattered across the floor like frozen raindrops. Steam still hissed from the ruined server conduits. The air smelled like scorched

Savannah jerked awake before her eyes even opened, her heart slamming against her ribs as if trying to claw its way out. The air around her was cold, unnaturally still, and for a moment she didn’t know where she was. The soft hum of Sterling Tower’s emergency generators vibrated through the floor, a reminder that the entire skyscraper was still locked in containment mode. But something was wrong something deeper than the alarms, the red lights, the tension crawling along the walls like static.“Savannah.” Jackson’s voice was low, steady, grounding her instantly. She turned, finding him standing by the reinforced glass wall, shoulders tense, jaw sharp in the dim glow. His eyes didn’t leave the view outside the night skyline split by flashing red strobes from security drones.She forced herself upright. “What happened? Why did the alarms start again?”Jackson didn’t answer immediately. He gestured for her to come closer. When she reached him, he pointed down past the tower’s lower level

The elevator doors slammed shut behind them with a metallic clang that echoed down the silent corridor. Savannah pressed her back to the cold steel wall, one hand clutching the rail behind her as if the tower itself were tilting. Jackson stood opposite her, chest rising and falling with controlled, but unmistakably strained, breaths. His shirt was torn at the shoulder where Harrison’s men had grabbed him. His jaw was locked tight enough to crack.Savannah’s pulse thudded in her ears. The lights flickered once, a stuttering flash that made the small elevator feel even smaller. For a second, she wondered if the entire tower would collapse before they reached the next floor. “He knew we’d come through the west wing,” she said, voice low but steady. “The ambush wasn’t random.”Jackson shook his head, pushing a hand through his hair. “No. Cole said Harrison had partial access to the floor maps. But this ” He stopped, gaze hardening. “This was precise. Someone fed him our movements.”Savann

The elevator doors slid shut with a metallic thud that echoed too loudly in the silence. Savannah pressed her back against the wall, sucking in a breath that refused to steady. Everything felt too tight her chest, the air, the space around them like the world had shrunk to a suffocating box of steel.Jackson stood opposite her, shoulders rigid, jaw locked, expression carved from something dark. The emergency lights cast a red glow over his face, sharpening every line, deepening the shadows beneath his eyes. He looked like a man on the edge of breaking but refusing to.The elevator jerked violently.Savannah grabbed the railing. “That wasn’t normal.”“No,” Jackson said, his voice low. “The tower’s grid is failing. Harrison rigged the entire emergency system.”“What does that mean for us?”“That if we don’t get out in the next fifteen minutes,” he answered, “we’re going down with the tower.”Savannah swallowed hard. Fifteen minutes. Fifteen minutes until everything collapsed around them