Chapter 12
The cooling vents above rack seven rattled violently as Maya forced the heavy steel grate loose with a crowbar she had retrieved from a maintenance locker. A rush of freezing, high-altitude wind howled into the server room, carrying the sound of torrential rain battering the skyscraper's exterior glass facade.
"Upload at ninety-eight percent," Claire called out, her fingers flying across the keyboard with absolute precision. "Hold on... almost there... ninety-nine percent... Done! The deposition and financial records have been successfully broadcast to federal regulatory servers and encrypted off-site archives."
Instantly, the red emergency lockdown klaxons cut out, replaced by a steady green confirmation light on the main terminal. But before the system could reset, the heavy security doors at the entrance of the server suite hissed open with a loud pneumatic pop. Three armed private security contractors in tactical gear stepped into the room, their assault rifles raised and trained directly on them.
"Drop your weapons and step away from the terminal!" the lead operative barked, his voice echoing sharply off the metal floor tiles.
Maya didn't hesitate. Grabbing a heavy fire extinguisher from the wall bracket, she hurled it directly at the overhead lighting grid, shattering the primary bulbs and plunging the room into sudden, absolute darkness. In the split second of confusion, she drew her sidearm and fired a precision round into the electronic control box of the security doors, welding the pneumatic sliding mechanism permanently open.
"Move, move, move!" Maya yelled, grabbing Claire by the hand and shoving her toward the open ventilation shaft.
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Julian scrambled up the metal shelving first, reaching down to hoist Claire bodily into the narrow, dark metal duct just as the security contractors opened fire. Suppressed rounds chewed through the server racks in showers of sparks and shredded plastic casing. Maya fired two rapid shots to suppress their advance, then scrambled backward up into the vent, pulling the heavy metal grate shut behind her just as a hail of bullets impacted the exterior surface.
They crawled on their hands and knees through the cramped, freezing metal tube, the wind howling around them as they navigated the vertical drop toward the exterior maintenance platform hanging forty-two stories above the glittering, rain-slicked streets of Seattle.
