Chapter 15 - The LockdownThe shrill, piercing wail of the corporate security klaxon echoed through the sub-levels like a dying siren.
Red emergency strobe lights flashed against the metal shelves, casting long, erratic streaks across the archive room. Adrian pinned Marcus to the ground, twisting his arm behind his back until the vintage golden key slipped from the lawyer's fingers and clattered across the concrete floor.
“Stay down!” Adrian ordered, his voice cutting through the deafening alarm.
I rushed forward, snatching the golden key off the floor just as heavy footsteps echoed down the concrete hallway outside. Within seconds, the reinforced security doors of the sub-level archive slammed shut with a hydraulic hiss.
Clank. Clank. Whirrrr.
The digital control panel beside the door flashed a brilliant, unforgiving crimson: SYSTEM LOCKDOWN ENGAGED. OVERRIDE FAILED.
“Damn it!” Adrian cursed, pulling Marcus to his feet and shoving him against a metal shelving unit. “He triggered the quarantine protocol. The automated system has sealed off this entire sector. Our comms are jammed by the lead-lined walls down here.”
I pressed my hand against the thick steel door, feeling the cold vibration of the machinery. My phone screen showed zero bars of service. We were completely cut off from the rest of the building.
Marcus let out a raspy, victorious laugh, blood trickling slightly from the corner of his lip where he’d hit the floor.
“You think you can outsmart forty years of architectural security?” Marcus wheezed, smiling through bruised lips. “This vault was built during the Cold War. Once the lockdown protocol is engaged, the air supply in this sector automatically throttles down to twenty percent within thirty minutes. Unless someone manually inputs the master cryptographic sequence from the main server upstairs... you two will suffocate down here.”
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Adrian grabbed Marcus by the collar of his suit. “Where is the manual override code?”
“In my head, Mr. Vale,” Marcus grinned maliciously. “And I’d rather die than give it to you.”
