Chapter 7 - The Terminal Screen
The Director froze, his hand hovering inches from his armpit. He slowly raised his arms, his eyes darting from Claire to the young deputy, then down to the open trapdoor. A slow, bitter smile crept onto his weathered face.
“You never did know when to drop a file, Bennett,” the Director said, his voice dropping into a steady, mocking tone. “You think walking in here with a local cop changes the outcome? The servers are already syncing with an offsite cluster in Zurich. By the time your little strike team reaches the front door, everything here is digital ash.”
Claire stepped past him without breaking eye contact, kicking open the door to the main room. Rows of stacked server towers blinked with hypnotic blue and green LED lights against the back wall. On the main monitor, a progress bar ticked upward at a relentless pace: 78% Synchronized.
Marcus and Sheriff Vance burst through the front door at that exact moment, their weapons drawn and sweeping the room. Vance took one look at the server towers and cursed loudly.
“Cut the power!” Vance yelled, lunging toward a heavy black breaker box mounted near the kitchen counter.
“Don't touch it!” Claire commanded sharply, freezing Vance in his tracks. “If you hard-kill those servers while the encryption protocol is writing, it triggers an automated burn sequence. It’ll wipe every local hard drive and fry our only remaining evidence before we can clone the data.”
Marcus moved to the main console, his fingers flying across the mechanical keyboard. He swore under his breath, staring at the scrolling cascade of code. “She’s right. The firewall has a dead-man switch keyed to the Director’s biometric ID. If his pulse drops or he enters the override code incorrectly, the drives format themselves.”
The Director laughed softly, leaning back against a wooden support beam. “You’re trapped by your own protocols. You need me alive, and you need me cooperating, or you walk out of here with nothing.”
Claire walked slowly toward the console, her eyes fixed on the climbing progress bar: 84% Synchronized. She didn't look at the Director. She reached down to her tactical belt, unclipped a small encrypted flash drive, and stared at the USB port on the main terminal.
“I don't need your cooperation to download the raw ledger, Director,” Claire said quietly.
“You do if you want the encryption key,” the Director replied with a smug grin. “That drive won't bypass the primary salt hash.”
Claire paused, her thumb resting on the metal casing of the USB drive. She looked up at Marcus.
May you like
“He’s lying about the salt hash,” Claire said, a cold smile touching the corners of her mouth. “He didn't write the encryption program. My brother did.”
---
