Chapter 7 - The Final Firewall"How long do those blast doors hold?" I demanded, stripping a submachine gun from the wall rack and slapping a fresh magazine into the well.
"Reinforced titanium," Julian replied without looking up from the console, his fingers flying across the holographic keys. "Ten minutes, if we're lucky. Five if they brought plasma cutters."
"Marcus, take the choke point by the server corridor," I ordered, tossing my secondary tactical vest to my security chief. "Keep them from reaching the primary console."
"Copy that, Boss," Marcus said, flashing a grim grin as he racked his slide and knelt behind a reinforced steel barricade.
I turned to Noah and Eli. Eli was huddled under the blanket, fast asleep through sheer nervous exhaustion, but Noah was standing tall, his eyes locked on his father.
"Noah," Julian said, his voice urgent as he grabbed his older son's shoulders. "Listen to me very carefully. Your uncle Arthur and I are going to hold the door. But when I tell you, you have to sit at this terminal, place your thumb on the biometric scanner, and press enter. Can you do that for me?"
Noah didn't cry. He swallowed hard, nodded, and stepped up to the glowing blue scanner. "I'm ready, Dad."
BOOM!
The deep, concussive roar of the outer blast door giving way rattled our teeth. The sound of heavy tactical boots swarming down the metal stairwell echoed through the subterranean corridor.
"They're through!" Marcus shouted, opening fire with a deafening burst of suppressive fire. Muzzle flashes lit up the dark corridor as the enemy returned fire, chewing up concrete and sparking off the server racks.
"Artie, get over here! Cover the flank!" Julian yelled, firing a tactical rifle from behind the central console.
I joined him, squeezing the trigger and laying down a wall of lead that forced the advancing commandos to dive behind cover. But there were too many of them. Wave after wave of elite mercenaries poured through the corridor, their weapons outfitted with armor-piercing rounds that began to shred our barricades to pieces.
"Dad! The system is asking for a secondary security cipher!" Noah yelled over the deafening roar of gunfire.
"Use your birthday, Noah! Month and day!" Julian shouted back, reloading his weapon with one hand while firing blindly down the corridor.
"It didn't work! It's locked out!" Noah cried out, panic finally breaking through his stoic exterior.
"They bypassed the outer firewall!" Marcus roared, taking a shrapnel hit to his thigh and collapsing against a server rack. "Boss, they're deploying gas! Gas!"
A hiss of white vapor filled the upper corridor, drifting downward toward the bunker floor. My eyes began to burn, and a heavy, suffocating dizziness washed over me. I fired my last magazine, the gun clicking empty on an empty chamber.
Julian took a round to his shoulder, grunting in pain as he stumbled backward against the console.
"It's over," Julian whispered, blood pooling beneath him. "They're going to take the boys."
"Not on my life," I snarled, grabbing a live tactical flash-bang grenade from my vest, pulling the pin with my teeth, and rolling it down the corridor just as the lead commando stepped through the smoke.
The blinding flash and deafening concussive blast blew the attackers backward, clearing the corridor for precious seconds.
"Noah!" I screamed, my vision swimming from the gas. "Look at me! What was the secret word your dad taught you when you were little? The one about the old tree at the estate?"
Noah’s eyes widened. "The... the iron oak!"
"Type it! Now!"
Noah slammed his small thumb onto the biometric scanner and typed IRON-OAK-77 into the keypad.
For a agonizing second, the screen flashed red: ACCESS DENIED.
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Then, with a sudden, beautiful chime, the screen turned a blinding, brilliant green.
ADMINISTRATIVE OVERRIDE ACCEPTED. GLOBAL ASSET FREEZE INITIATED. TRANSFERRING ALL FUNDS TO STERLING FOUNDATION TRUST.
