21 hours to Doomsday

13: 30 (22: 30 hours to doomsday)

Academy Building, New Eden

57th Floor of the Academy building, the topmost floor and the main control hub of SNA. The hub was a big room with screens all over the walls showing different places of the world and wide, long control panels with PCs on them. The PC screens were showing real-time footage from the helmet cams of each defusal team leader. On a high podium in the middle of the hall stood General Overlord. General Overlord ordered, "All areal units, keep serveying the cities under you and relay the info to the ground units. When you find the nukes, attach the EMP generators given to you to the nuke and disable it. Failure isn't an option."

ARIA's voice came through Overlord's earpiece: "Sir, Captain Ghost is trying to contact you."

Overlord replied, "Redirect the call to Phantom. Let him handle it. My hands are full right now."

"Understood, general."

Overlord said again, "To all the squads and their handlers, I want the location of the nukes pinpointed in the next hour. I don't care how; give me the locations. Is that clear?"

The hall buzzed at many people's syncronized voices saying, "Yes, sir."

14:01 (21 hours to doomsday)

Ninoy Aquino International Airport, Makati, Philippine

Naoki stopped the car in front of a locked door on the airport runway. Two armed guards approached the car, and Naoki rolled down the windows.

One guard said in a crude voice, "This isn't a passenger door. Turn back; the terminal door is to the left."

The window to the back seat rolled down, and Annabelle put out her hand through it. She was holding her royal passport open. She said, "But we aren't going through the terminal. My ride's waiting inside."

The moment the guard saw the passport, he stood in attention and saluted Annabelle. He said, "I'm really sorry, ma'am. I didn't notice it was her highness who wanted to pass."

Annabelle put her hand back inside as she said, "It's fine. I'm not with my security team after all."

The guards went back and opened the gate. They saluted again as the car went inside. Jacob looked at Annabelle and said, "Look at you, acting all high and mighty."

Annabelle retaliated, "Acting? I am high and mighty. Naomi, tell him who I am."

Naomi was silent throughout the ride. Annabelle tried to make her ease up with her comment, but when she looked at Naomi after, she knew she had failed as Naomi still remained silent, looking down.

Sohel said, "Leave her alone for now. She needs time to process everything and reasy herself."

Annabelle slowly replied, "Okay, boss."

The car stopped in front of an elevated helipad. All of them got out of the car and got on top of the helipad, where they found the helicopter waiting for them, the engine already on.

Annabelle said, "Now everyone, get on."

As the helicopter took flight, Naoki asked, "The message you sent, will your recipient be able to decode it?"

Sohel smiled and replied, "She will. We've been doing it since we were kids." 

14: 13 (21 hours to doomsday)

SNA Medical Center, New Eden

Mitali was checking patient records of Sgt. Hossaini when a nurse suddenly entered the room and said, "Ma'am, we got a case of mind chips. Can you come with me?"

Mitali looked back at the nurse standing at the door and asked, "What happened?"

"Two women have been brought; both of them have neural chips emplanted in their necks."

Mitali put down the tablet and said, "Let's go and see what we are dealing with. Where are they?"

The nurse replied, "They're in the plane they were brought in. Lt. Princess had asked to keep them under constant exposure to low-frequency EMP."

Mitali said, "Hmm. The nanobots are in Artemis too. Tell the guards to transfer them to Artemis. Tell them to be careful about the EMP. Those things get active for even a second. the girl dies."

The nurse turned around and started walking as she said, "Yes, ma'am. I'll let them know."

Both of them got out of the room and made their way to Runway 7.

14: 29 (21 hours to doomsday)

Artemis Medbay, Runway 7 hanger, New Eden

Mitali entered the room and put down her apron on a chair. She looked at Mimi and Lola. They were sitting with their hands handcuffed and 4 SNA soldiers pointing their guns at them. Mitali said, "Put the guns down, boys. I don't think they have the willpower to escape anymore."

One soldier retaliated, "But ma'am..."

Mitali blocked him mid-sentence and said, "I don't want guns in my office. Is that too much to ask? Please go and wait outside. Even if they do try to escape, they have no other choice but to get out of Artemis. They can't fly this thing."

The guard replied, "Yes, ma'am. Let's go boys."

The guards left the room. Once they left, "Mitali said, "Sorry for the scare. Let's get the chips out of you now, shall we?"

Lola replied, "Uhm, thank you."

Mitali readied nanobot syringes while she said, "Ahh. Don't worry about it. It's the captain's orders after all. But I do wonder how you two even got those chips inside you. Mind sharing your story?"

Before Lola could say anything, Mimi said, "It's always been in us."

Mitali turned back to Mimi with a bit of awe in her face and asked, "Huh? How?"

Mimi answered, "Cause we're the best subjects of the doctor."

If Lola's hands weren't cuffed, she surely would've smacked Mimi in the head, but all she could do as Mimi told Mitali everything was sit there like a helpless being.

In the meantime, Mitali disabled the chips and took them out of them. Mitali's chip extraction and Mimi's backstory ended at the same time. Mitali went to the sink and was washing her hand when suddenly, ARIA said, "Sergeant, you got a message."

Mitali looked back and asked, "Who is it?"

"Captain Ghost."

Mitali was a bit surprised as to why Sohel would send a message while he could just call. She said, "Play the message."