Chapter 7: Ambush at the River**
The maintenance tunnel emptied onto the muddy embankments of the Rhône River. Cold rain poured from the pitch-black sky, turning the clay path into slick mud.
Marcus led the way with a tactical flashlight, keeping Camille shielded behind his broad shoulder, while Director Vance brought up the rear with a satellite relay pack.
A blinding spotlight suddenly cut through the deluge from fifty yards upstream. An unmarked tactical riverboat roared toward them, its twin outboard motors chewing through the water.
"Get down!" Marcus shoved Camille behind a concrete storm drainage pillar just as rounds pinged off the stone, sending sparks and shrapnel flying into the dark.
"They don't want to kill us," Vance shouted over the gunfire. "They want the biometric encryption token around her neck to revoke the leaks before the press servers mirror them!"
Marcus returned fire, pinning down the boat's pilot, but two armed operatives in dark tactical gear were already wading through the shallow mud toward their position.
Camille pressed her back against the wet concrete, breathing in short, measured gasps. She looked down at the brass key. It was just a piece of metal now—the data was out, free in the world.
She looked at Marcus, who was running out of ammunition, bleeding from a shrapnel graze on his forearm. She realized these people were ready to die for a legacy that wasn't even their own.
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"Hey!" Camille shouted, stepping out from behind the pillar into the glaring beam of the spotlight, holding the brass key high above her head. "You want Arthur Hayes's key? Come take it!"
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