Chapter 8
The roof access hatch gave way with a rusted screech as Daniel threw his weight against it, tumbling headfirst into the dim, dusty expanse of the building’s old mechanical attic. Rachel hoisted Toby through the opening just as another round of gunfire clipped the edge of the sheet-metal hatch cover, sending a shower of metallic flakes down into the dark stairwell below.
Rachel scrambled inside after them, and Daniel slammed the heavy steel hatch shut, throwing the dual locking bolts into place with a resounding thud. They collapsed onto the dusty plywood flooring of the attic, gasping for breath as the rain drummed a frantic rhythm against the corrugated tin roof overhead.
The attic was a labyrinth of old air-conditioning ducts, massive copper wiring bundles, and forgotten office furniture covered in white canvas sheets. It smelled of dry dust, aged insulation, and stagnant water.
“Are you hit?” Daniel asked urgently, crawling over to Rachel and checking her arms and shoulders in the dim light filtering through a high, grimy gable window.
“I’m fine. I’m fine, what about you?” Rachel gasped, her chest heaving as she pulled Toby into her lap. The boy was shivering violently, his dark jacket soaked through from the rain on the balcony.
“Just a few scrapes,” Daniel said, wiping rain and sweat from his face with the back of his hand. He pulled the metal flash drive out of his pocket, holding it up like a talisman against the gloom. “I got it. The master encryption key is intact.”
“And what good does that do us if we’re trapped in an attic at the top of a corporate fortress with an army of assassins downstairs?” Rachel demanded, her voice cracking with a mixture of exhaustion and rising hysteria. The restraint she had maintained for hours was finally beginning to fray at the edges.
“It does us good because this isn’t just an office building,” Daniel said, his voice dropping into a calm, resolute tone that demanded attention. He stood up, walking over to a small service door at the far end of the attic that opened onto the adjacent roof terrace. “This building shares a structural foundation with the old federal courthouse annex next door. There’s an underground communications trunk that leads straight to the regional FBI field office.”
Rachel stared at him, the pieces finally clicking together in her mind. “You planned this route from the very beginning. You knew the apartment would be compromised.”
“I knew the board would try to sanitize the division the moment the audit hit their desk,” Daniel corrected, looking her dead in the eye. “I didn’t expect them to move this fast. But yes, I had a contingency plan.”
He turned the handle of the service door, checking the lock. It was unlocked from the inside—a forgotten access point left open during the building’s last structural inspection three years ago.
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“We walk across that roof, drop down into the federal annex, and we hand the drive directly to Agent Miller,” Daniel said, looking down at Toby with a gentle, reassuring smile. “We’re almost out of this, buddy. I promise.”
***
