Chapter 8
The smoke in the laboratory slowly began to clear, sucked upward by the emergency ventilation system that Jax had manually rerouted moments earlier. Two tactical operatives lay motionless on the floor, their weapons scattered across the blood-spattered linoleum. The third had retreated backward into the transit tunnel, dragging a wounded leg as he scrambled for cover. Jax didn't pursue him. He knew that chasing a retreating soldier in unfamiliar tunnels was a tactical error; their objective wasn't to clear the facility, but to vanish before reinforcements arrived.
Dr. Vance was huddled beneath a metal examination table, trembling violently, his wire-rimmed glasses crooked across his nose. Jax walked over, extending a strong hand down toward the terrified doctor, hauling him to his feet with a single, effortless motion.
"Pack your drives, Arthur," Jax instructed, his tone entirely devoid of panic or anger. "If you stay here when the clean-up crew arrives, the board won't bother executing you—they’ll simply repurpose your lab as a disposal site."
Vance swallowed hard, nodding rapidly as he rushed to his central terminal, furiously punching keys to wipe the local database clean before ripping three solid-state hard drives from their housing units. "Where are we going? The city grid is locked down. Every transit car will trigger an alarm."
"We aren't taking the transit car," Jax said, walking over to the reinforced glass vault and tapping twice on the surface.
Elena immediately unlatched the heavy steel door, stepping out into the laboratory with Goliath close at her side. The mastiff looked significantly stronger now, his massive head held high, his dark eyes sharp and focused. Elena’s green evening gown was ruined—torn at the hem and stained with grey plaster dust—but her posture was rigid and resolute.
"The tactical team deployed from the north stairwell," Elena noted, looking at the spilled gear of the fallen operatives. "That means the auxiliary drainage tunnel beneath this sector is currently unguarded."
"Smart girl," Jax approved with a faint, rare ghost of a smile. "The drainage tunnel leads directly to the old railway yards near the harbor. From there, we can catch a freight freighter heading south toward the gulf."
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"And the data?" Vance asked, clutching the solid-state drives tightly against his chest like a shield.
"It goes with us," Jax said, tapping the inner pocket of his black suit where the encrypted drive rested safely beside his heart. "When we reach the safehouse, we broadcast the entire ledger to every international regulatory body simultaneously. Once the syndicate's financial network is exposed to the light, they won't have time to hunt us down—they'll be too busy running from their own investors."
