Chapter 45 - The Escape Through the Pass
The alarm Klaxons inside The Vault of the Black Forest finally wailed to life, filling the sterile white corridors with a deafening, pulsing crimson strobe light. Automated steel blast doors began slamming downward across the primary hallways, sealing off sectors with terrifying mechanical precision.
“Move, move, move!” I shouted, sprinting down the central corridor toward the lower cooling chamber just as a heavy steel bulkhead began to drop from the ceiling.
We ducked beneath the descending door with inches to spare, sliding across the wet concrete floor into the underground water drainage shaft that led back to the mountain service tunnel.
Behind us, the sound of shouting guards and barking tactical dogs echoed off the stone walls. Heavy footsteps pounded against the metal grating above our heads as the quick-reaction force swarmed the lower levels.
We plunged back into the freezing glacial runoff of the service tunnel, wading chest-deep through the icy current as we raced toward the distant pinprick of light marking the exit three miles down the valley.
By the time we burst out of the rusted iron access door and climbed the steep shale slope back to where Julian Moreau had parked the Mercedes G-Wagon, our drysuits were frozen stiff, and our breath plumed heavily in the freezing mountain air.
Julian was leaning against the passenger door of the SUV, smoking another cigar, his engine idling quietly.
“You look like you’ve been swimming with the glaciers,” Julian grinned, opening the rear door for us as we scrambled inside. “And judging by the sirens echoing down the valley, I assume the Swiss authorities are currently very unhappy with you.”
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“Let’s just say we updated their data architecture,” Ethan panted, collapsing into the backseat and pulling off his rebreather mask.
Julian threw the SUV into gear, tearing down the winding mountain pass before the Aegis quick-reaction teams could establish roadblocks.
