Ryan’s eyes darkened when he heard that, and he felt Echo’s face heat up with a faint flush. He tightened his grip around her.
Kevin’s stuff was definitely the real deal. Even though Kevin dealt in drugs, he didn’t use them himself, so whatever he gave Echo was likely not too harmful. Ryan knew it was safe enough, especially since drugs wouldn’t cause addiction after just two doses.
“SHIT. Everything’s rusted!” One of the gang leaders who had rushed in to look for the self-destruct device cursed loudly.
He’d tried to move a couple of switches, but they were so rusted that they snapped off with a loud crack. Standing there holding two broken switches, unsure if they were even the right ones, he scowled and muttered angrily to himself.
“Which one is the correct one, George?” Kevin shot a cold look at the gang leader and barked the question.
King George, Prince William, and the others were still busy searching the computer in the main hall. The gang members guarding the area held their breath and stood silently, waiting.
“The wrench on the far left wall-pull it down,” Count Owen quickly identified the starting mechanism from the schematics on the screen.
“Far left? SHIT. Bastard,” Kevin muttered, following Owen’s directions.
But when he reached the spot, he saw that the wrench was completely gone, its switch snapped off. All that remained was a jagged break in the metal, and the gang leader nearby froze, staring at the broken switch in his hand, his expression unreadable.
Fury surged through Kevin. He punched the gang leader hard, knocking him to the ground. The man’s face was immediately covered in blood, but he didn’t make a sound. His face turned ashen, his body limp.
“Enough! Is there any other way?” Ryan’s voice, filled with frustration, echoed in the room.
George and the others in the room were just as grim. Without the handle, the device had rusted so badly over the years that it had fused with the surrounding metal. There was no obvious way to manipulate it now, and no one knew where to start looking.
Silence. A heavy silence settled over them.
Kevin, Ryan, and the others didn’t speak. George, still staring at the computer screen, remained silent, and the men left behind to monitor them stood still as well. The oppressive atmosphere thickened, and it felt like hope and despair kept crashing into each other, pushing everyone to the edge.
The tension was palpable, and the air felt charged with an almost suffocating intensity, as if the entire castle were brimming with danger.
“Look harder. There has to be another switch. Look closely,” Echo said, her voice steady as the drug began to take effect.
She had been groggy before, but now her head cleared, and she felt much more alert. She had been listening to the conversation and spoke up calmly.
George and the others remained silent in front of the computer, and a flicker of hopelessness crossed their faces.
When Echo didn’t hear anything from the speakers, she raised her voice sharply. “Keep looking! There has to be a master switch. Hurry up-if you don’t want to die, move faster!”
Her sudden shout startled everyone in the room, including George and the others. They all turned toward the monitors, staring at Echo, whose serious expression was now displayed clearly on the screen.
Cobra saw Echo’s serious expression, that same calm she showed when they’d fought side by side, and his brow furrowed. He shouted, “Get moving! Are you actually gonna ignore what Mrs. Ryan said? If she says it’s there, it’s there.”
Hearing that, King George and the others took a deep breath and started searching again.
Echo leaned against Ryan, gripping his hand tightly as she closed her eyes, frowning in thought. “Back then, everything had double protections-if one failed, there was always a backup. That was standard for all buildings and designs three hundred years ago.”
Her expertise was in antiques and the art of theft. Given her familiarity with Italy’s historic sites, she’d studied castles like these when preparing for a heist against another organization, so she knew the architecture well and trusted her instincts to guide them.
Seeing Echo’s confidence, Kevin took a breath, glanced at the timer ticking down in his hand, and said gravely, “One minute and eleven seconds left.” What was once an ample three minutes had turned tight. With his and Ryan’s abilities, they’d expected extra time to spare, which was why he’d stayed so calm, joking around with Echo. But the situation had changed, and suddenly every second counted.
“Hurry up!” Ryan shouted, his voice booming over the speaker, urging King George and the others to pick up their pace.
“There! There really is a master switch!” Count Owen suddenly stood up, delighted after skimming the blueprints.
Prince William gasped, speaking between breaths, “It’s above you, inside the metal panel. Just push it, and it should work.”
“Hurry, it’s right above you!” King George, now just as desperate, stood and stared intently at the screen, watching the group.
Everyone in the hall gathered around, their eyes fixed on Ryan, Kevin, and Echo. Faces tense, fists clenched, they held their breath, waiting. At that moment, the world seemed to narrow down to just that single focus.
But in the control room, there was nothing to support them. Ryan and Kevin, skilled as they were, couldn’t reach over two meters overhead without leverage.
Ryan frowned and lifted Echo. “You’re up.”
Echo nodded without hesitation. With no handle left to activate, she had no choice but to make her own. She scraped the fine wire from her ring against the metal panel, ignoring where the right spot might be, and cut a square hole in it. The metal piece dropped out, and Ryan caught it with one hand.
It wasn’t the best position, but inside the panel, Echo saw a small, finger-sized button, rusted solid.
“Forty-three seconds left,” Kevin warned in a low voice, keeping an eye on the timer as Echo worked.
Echo didn’t say a word. She tightened the wire, circling it around the rusty button to break up the corrosion, then bent her finger, aligning her ring over the button and pushing up.
It wouldn’t budge-not even a little. Echo put all her strength into it, but it barely moved. Ryan could feel her struggling and quickly tightened his grip on her legs, lifting her higher to help her get better leverage.
“Thirty-three seconds,” Kevin announced, his usual smirk replaced with a cold, focused stare as he held the timer.
“It won’t go in. I don’t have enough strength,” Echo said, covered in sweat. She was already weak from her injuries, and while Kevin’s drug had kept her alert, it hadn’t given her back her full strength. With the button rusted for centuries, her effort wasn’t making much difference.
“Damn it,” Kevin cursed, grabbing the gang leader with a deadened look on his face. Using him for leverage, he pushed off and leapt to reach Echo’s arm, grabbing her hand to help press down on the button.
With Kevin’s added force, Echo felt a surge of strength and managed to push the button in. A rusty grinding noise immediately filled the space, echoing through the passage as gears began to turn.
Kevin let go and flipped backward to the ground, while Ryan loosened his hold just in time to catch Echo as she fell. He pulled her tightly into his arms, holding her close.
“It’s on! Fall back, now!” King George and the others could see everything on the screen, and Cobra wasted no time shouting for a retreat as soon as the task was done.
At Cobra’s signal, everyone in the hall began moving back quickly. King George and his group were herded out by Cobra and Kevin’s men, and with a loud bang, the main hall was sealed off.
Ryan, Echo, Kevin, and the fourth person all heard Cobra’s call. Without missing a beat, Ryan turned around, carrying Echo as he sprinted back down the corridor, with Kevin and the other man right on his heels.
Then came the sound of rushing water, thundering closer and closer. In moments, water began pouring in from the river outside, flooding the passageway. Built below the castle and even lower than the river level, the corridor was the first to take the hit.