Shutting Down Novels & Stories

She reads the display, the red light reflecting in her eyes. "If the timer hits zero," she whispers, "the monitors go dark before the building systems even fail." "For how long?" "Sixty seconds. The transition window between remote shutdown and local restart." I look at her. "He doesn't want you to choose justice over the company. He wants you to choose the company over your mother." "And if I authenticate the shutdown using the scanners?" "The building systems fail immediately. But the medical bridge stays active. Your mother stays monitored. No gap."

Do follow and vote. Till then Adios

“And if someone is trying to sabotage your project, tell me.” I closed my eyes, letting his words rest in my chest for a moment. “Alright. Good night, Hugo.” After the call ended, Nicky glanced at me through the rearview mirror. “You’re not really shutting down the turbines, are you?” “I am shutting them down.” I gave a small smile, then began explaining to Nicky what I planned to do. Nicky smiled for the first time that day. “Elegant move.”

The panel responded with a low mechanical click, then a harder one, as if something deep in the grid was waking up and deciding whether to obey. The floor underneath me lurched violently. I nearly lost my balance. Then the entire building shuddered so hard it felt like a fist had slammed straight through the structure. I gasped and caught myself on the conduit panel just as a cloud of dust burst loose from above and came raining down over me. “Aria!” Adrian shouted from somewhere behind me. I coughed, eyes burning. The system was reacting. Good. Bad. Both. I forced the last piece of the sequence through with trembling fingers, heart slamming so hard I thought I might be sick from it. The old

The screen goes dark a second later. Connection terminated. But the conversation is far from over.

Goodbye. ****

Catherine greeted them with her usual glow. "It's been a long day ... I think I'll be retiring too for the evening ... I'm going back to my room, good night Mrs. Ludlow, good night, Charlene," he tried to sound and act as casual as possible. Charlene was holding her breath until he was finally out of her room. She sighed in relief as she closed the door behind him. "I heard shouting, is everything alright?" Catherine asked. She walked over and hugged her mother, she was incredibly grateful for the interruption.

She leaned over, praying that she was right, and typed in a ten character password. Alphastar1. Zehra held her breath as the screen blinked, verifying the password. Seconds later, the black screensaver vanished. Goal. She inspected the desktop and opened a folder named ‘ZM recordings’ which contained a few dated audio clips. She clicked on one and her hand flew to her mouth when she heard her own voice. “-and the facts are massive and astounding. So I’m just saying that I think there’s this shadow government that like, indirectly controls the world-"

"What are you doing?" James didn't stop. "Shutting you down for good." Salvatore moved toward him, but Micah stepped in his path, his shotgun aimed at the man's chest. "Not so fast." Salvatore sneered. "You think you can kill me and walk away? My reach extends far beyond this estate." Sophia raised her weapon. "We're not walking away. We're ending this." James let out a triumphant shout. "Done!" The monitors flickered, the live feeds disappearing. Alarms blared as the estate's systems began to shut down.

“I suspected.” Ayesha narrowed her eyes. “What aren’t you telling me?” Zayn exhaled, running a hand through his hair. “There’s a manual override. But…” Leena crossed her arms. “There’s always a ‘but.’ Spit it out.” Zayn hesitated. Then he said the words no one wanted to hear. “The only way to shut down Revenant… is from inside the core.” Silence. Adrian swore under his breath. Ayesha exhaled slowly. Of course it was.