Chapter 9 - Breach at Headquarters
The armored town car slid to a violent halt outside the towering monolith of Vance Global Headquarters. The skyscraper loomed like a dark obsidian obelisk against the stormy night sky, its upper floors shrouded in dense rain clouds. Only a few emergency lights flickered behind the tinted glass windows.
Christian flung his door open, shielding Elena with his broad frame as they dashed through the revolving glass doors into the cavernous lobby. Two heavily armed private security guards stood waiting by the elevator banks, their expressions grim.
"Mr. Vance," the lead guard nodded sharply. "The perimeter doors were breached ten minutes ago. We found the night watchman tied up in the security office. The intruders are already on the forty-second floor in the server room."
"Who let them in?" Christian demanded, drawing a sleek black Sig Sauer pistol from his holster and checking the magazine with a practiced click.
"We don't know, sir, but they used an executive override code belonging to Clara Sterling," the guard replied, handing Christian a tactical keycard. "This will get you past the sub-level elevator block, but the main server room door has been deadbolted from the inside."
Elena pressed her hand against her abdomen, wincing as a sharp contraction rolled through her body. The stress and physical exertion were taking a severe toll, but she forced the pain down, her jaw set with unbreakable resolve. "I can walk, Christian. Let's go."
They descended into the subterranean elevator, the metal car dropping smoothly through the dark shaft. The silence inside was oppressive, broken only by the heavy breathing of the bodyguards and the distant rumble of thunder echoing through the concrete foundations.
When the doors slid open on the forty-second floor, the long hallway was bathed in the pulsing red glow of emergency backup lights. Wisps of grey smoke drifted from the open doorway of the primary server room at the far end of the corridor.
Christian raised his weapon, gesturing for the bodyguards to flank him as they advanced step by step over the polished tile floor. As they reached the smoking threshold, a tall figure stepped out from the shadows of the server racks, holding a smoking laptop in one hand.
It wasn't Julian. It was the man in the black suit’s most trusted corporate vice president, Arthur Vance—their own cousin.
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Arthur smiled coldly, a dark bruise forming along his cheekbone. "You're too late, Christian. The data is already halfway across the Pacific."
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