The digital countdown in the corner of the holo-screen blinked with a harsh crimson glare.
[04:59] [04:58] [04:57]
Across the eighteen domes of the Expo Megaplex, emergency warning sirens screamed.
Red strobe lights spun across the glass ceilings, painting the crowd in blood-colored shadows. Millions of citizens who had gathered for the clean technology showcase froze in terror, looking up at the public holo-projectors in stunned horror.
Drakon’s mechanical fingers clutched the brass detonator. His four cybernetic arms jerked with spastic, hysterical energy.
“Look at the telemetry, Lin Mo!” Drakon shrieked from his subterranean bunker. “The exhaust vents of this foundry are linked directly to the planetary geothermal shafts! In five minutes, forty billion cubic meters of soul-melting necro-gas will blanket every continent! Flesh will slide off bone in thirty seconds! Eighty million citizens will melt into screaming ghouls!”
Drakon slammed a heavy fist against the reinforced glass of a three-story storage tank.
Inside the tank, thick black sludge churned like boiling tar. Thousands of agonized spectral faces pressed against the transparent crystal, wailing in silent agony.
