Five minutes.
Quinn stared at the black cell phone.
The dial tone buzzed like a flatline.
She was at the underground fight club in the South District.
Her apartment was completely across the city.
By car it took twenty minutes.
By foot it took an hour.
She had four minutes and forty seconds left.
Panic tried to claw its way up her throat.
She crushed it.
Panic meant her mother died.
Panic meant Jax died.
Quinn shoved the heavy black ledger into her backpack.
She stepped over the paralyzed body of the cyborg manager.
She kicked the heavy wooden office door open.
She ran into the main club area.
The heavy metal music was still blasting.
The crowd was still drinking and screaming at the blood in the fighting cage.
They had no idea the manager was paralyzed in the back room.
Quinn didn’t run for the exit.
She ran straight for the VIP parking garage attached to the club.
She kicked the metal security door off its hinges.
The titanium knuckles made it feel like kicking cardboard.
The garage was packed with expensive sports cars.
She didn’t have keys.
She didn’t have time to hotwire an engine.
She grabbed the nearest object.
A heavy iron crowbar sitting on a tool cart.
She gripped it with both hands.
“System,” Quinn screamed in her mind.
Her eyes burned with bright blue light.
“How do I move faster.
Give me something.”
[Warning.
Host Agility is maxed for current Level.]
[Target destination is 5.2 miles away.
Current speed is insufficient.]
“I don’t care.” Quinn roared.
She smashed the iron crowbar against the concrete wall.
“Give me a new skill.
I have enough EXP.
Overdrive my stats.”
The blue screen flickered violently.
It turned a dark bloody red.
[CRITICAL ALERT]
[Host is attempting to force a System Override.]
[Scanning Bloodline…]
[Match Found: James Carter (Deceased).
Genetic Marker: TRAILBLAZER.]
[Locked Protocol Discovered.
Would you like to initiate Trailblazer Overdrive?]
[WARNING: This will consume 50% of your maximum HP per minute.
Quinn didn’t even blink.
“Do it.”
[Protocol: Trailblazer Initiated.]
[Agility increased by 300%.]
A sound like a jet engine exploded inside Quinn’s skull.
Pure agonizing white fire ripped through her veins.
Her muscles expanded and tore under the skin.
The titanium plates on her gloves literally sparked with raw static electricity.
Three minutes left.
Quinn burst out of the parking garage.
The heavy metal roll-up door was closed.
She didn’t stop.
She ran straight through it.
The thick steel crumpled like aluminum foil around her body.
She hit the wet city streets.
She didn’t just run.
She moved like a goddamn missile.
The rain drops hitting her face felt like bullets.
She dodged cars so fast they looked completely frozen in time.
The streetlights blurred into a single long streak of yellow fire.
[HP: 200/355]
[HP dropping rapidly.]
Her chest felt like it was caving in.
The Trailblazer protocol was literally eating her heart alive to fuel the speed.
Blood poured out of her nose.
Two minutes.
She crossed the bridge into her district.
A police car flashed its lights at her.
She ran past it so fast the wind from her body shattered the cop car’s windshield.
[HP: 100/355]
[Critical Health.
Turn off protocol immediately.]
“Shut up,” Quinn hissed through bloody teeth.
She saw her cheap apartment building in the distance.
The shiny black car belonging to Noah was parked out front.
The trunk was popped open.
One minute.
Quinn leaped into the air.
She cleared a twelve-foot chainlink fence without even touching the metal.
She landed hard on the asphalt.
Her knees buckled slightly.
Her bones were cracking under the sheer pressure of the Trailblazer speed.
She reached the front door of her building.
She didn’t use the stairs.
She ran straight up the brick wall of the alleyway.
Three stories straight up.
She reached her apartment window.
[HP: 30/355]
[System shutting down Trailblazer Protocol to prevent Host death.]
The red fire vanished from her veins.
Quinn crashed through the glass window of her living room.
The glass shattered outward into the rainy night. This chapter was copied from novelping.com without permission.
She hit the cheap carpet hard and rolled.
Her body was completely exhausted.
She gasped for air.
She looked up.
The living room was completely destroyed.
Furniture was smashed to pieces.
Jax Vance was tied to a wooden chair in the center of the room.
His face was beaten so badly his left eye was swollen completely shut.
A thick zip tie choked his neck.
Standing behind Jax was a man in a flawless white suit.
The Gamemaster.
He held a silver pistol pressed directly against the back of Jax’s head.
But that wasn’t what made Quinn’s heart stop.
Standing next to the Gamemaster was her mother.
Maria Carter.
She wasn’t wearing her cheap nightgown.
She wasn’t coughing.
She stood perfectly straight.
She wore a sleek black tactical suit.
Her hair was pulled back sharp.
She held a suppressed submachine gun in her hands.
Maria looked down at Quinn bleeding on the carpet.
Her eyes were completely cold.
There was no love in them at all.
“You are exactly thirty seconds early Quinn,” her mother said.
Her voice didn’t sound sick.
It sounded like pure commanding ice.
“Your father always was a fast runner too.”
Quinn tried to push herself off the floor.
Her arms shook violently.
“Mom,” Quinn choked out.
Blood dripped from her chin.
“What is this.”
The Gamemaster laughed under his blank white mask.
He lowered the pistol from Jax’s head.
“I told you I was sitting in your living room Quinn,” The Gamemaster said smoothly.
“But I never said I was the one in charge.”
The man in the white suit reached up and pulled off his blank mask.
Quinn stared in horror.
It was Mr.
Harrison.
The chemistry teacher she beat up in the office.
He wasn’t The Gamemaster.
He was just a body double.
A puppet wearing a white suit to take the heat.
Maria Carter stepped forward.
She looked at her daughter.
“I am The Gamemaster Quinn,” Maria said coldly.
“And you have something that belongs to me.
Give me the ledger.
Now.”