Messing With Her? Are You Crazy! novel Chapter 1691

But the normalcy only fueled his paranoia.

The suffocating knot of anxiety in Kaelen's chest tightened.

He stood before the heavy doors, staring them down as if he could see through the metal.

A few heavy seconds passed.

After a moment of internal war, he gritted his teeth and whipped his head toward the tech. "Initiate the Overlord Override Key. Force those doors open."

Toby's head snapped up, his face draining of color. "What? Director, are you certain?"

Kaelen narrowed his eyes. "Did you not hear my order?"

"But..." Toby cast a frantic look at the sealed entrance, his voice tight. "You know the protocol. If we use the override, the internal systems will register an active threat."

"It'll trigger the Emergency Shutdown Protocol. All active machinery will halt instantly."

"It'll vent the sterile environment. Any serum she's synthesizing right now will be entirely compromised!"

The Med-Tech Quarantine executives shifted uneasily, the weight of the tech's words settling over them.

Entirely compromised?

The Panacea had been locked in there for nearly two hours.

If she was truly in the middle of a complex synthesis...

Every raw material, every ounce of focus, and the nearly finished product would be utterly ruined by a forced entry.

One of the executives stepped forward, keeping his voice low. "Director, shouldn't we reconsider?"

"She has The Sterling Sovereign backing her."

The Sterling Sovereign.

The name alone landed like a lead weight in the corridor, suffocating the air out of their lungs.

He was a man who held the highest tier Raven-Plume Pass on Project Zero-Transit, a VIP buyer that even the ship's commanders walked on eggshells around.

Not to mention, The Panacea wasn't exactly known for her forgiving nature.

The moment the woman had boarded, she had poisoned someone in plain sight of the Med-Tech Quarantine and casually demanded a fortune for the antidote.

She was arrogant, ruthless, and played entirely by her own rules.

No.

The Commodore would make sure it was a slow, agonizing end.

Kaelen clenched his fists, the color draining and returning to his face in frantic intervals.

Finally, he made his choice. "Open it!"

The executives tried to protest. "Director Kaelen—"

"I said open it!" he snapped, his eyes wild and bloodshot. "We are doing this for her own safety!"

He forced a manic justification into his tone. "She has been radio silent for two hours."

"The Midnight Auction is almost over, and she still hasn't checked in."

"How do we know she hasn't succumbed to a toxic exposure? How do we know there hasn't been a catastrophic chemical reaction in there?"

"We aren't targeting her. We are confirming her wellbeing!"

"If something went wrong, breaching the door now gives us a chance to save her!"