Chapter 24 - Fire in the Terminal
"We’ve been compromised!" Miller barked, drawing his rifle and taking up a defensive position beside the reinforced steel door of the server room.
"How?" Hannah cried, her fingers flying across the console. "The proxy firewall shouldn't have tripped for another twenty minutes!"
"It wasn't a firewall breach," I said, my voice ice-cold as I cocked my pistol. "It was a dead-man switch. Cross knew the moment we accessed the primary routing tables, the system would automatically flash an alert to his secondary command cell in Seattle."
Heavy rounds slammed into the exterior wall outside the server room, the sharp crack of high-caliber fire chewing through drywall and shattering glass partitions. Miller returned fire with controlled, tactical bursts, keeping the advancing mercenaries pinned in the narrow hallway.
"Hannah, status on the download!" I shouted over the deafening roar of automatic gunfire.
"Eighty-nine percent... ninety-five... complete!" she yelled, yanking the secure drive from the terminal and tucking it securely into her tactical vest. "We have everything! Every account, every name, every shipping route!"
"Miller, pop a smoke and fall back to the eastern gantry!" I ordered.
A thick, blinding white smoke grenade bounced down the corridor, filling the hallway with an impenetrable cloud. Under the cover of the smoke, our team moved with ruthless speed, fighting our way past the secondary warehouse exits and out toward the wet concrete of the open docks.
The cold Seattle rain began to fall in heavy, driving sheets, mixing with the smell of diesel and gunsmoke. Apex mercenaries swarmed out from the shipping containers, cutting off our path to the armored SUVs.
I raised my weapon, steadying my breathing, and fired three precise shots. Three targets dropped instantly.
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"Keep moving!" I roared, leading Hannah and the remaining security detail toward the edge of the pier where our extraction zodiacs waited bobbing in the dark, churning water of the bay.
We dove into the boats as heavy gunfire chewed up the wooden pilings behind us. The powerful outboard motors roared to life, launching us out into the safety of the dark, rain-swept harbor.
