Chapter 69 - The Geneva Approach
Thirty-six hours later, the private Gulfstream jet cut through the star-studded night sky over the snow-capped peaks of the Swiss Alps, descending smoothly toward Geneva International Airport. The cabin glowed in a dim, tactical red as Ethan hunched over his laptop, his fingers flying across the keyboard while lines of decryption algorithms scrolled across the screen in cascading emerald text.
“We’re thirty minutes out from touchdown,” Ethan announced, without looking up from his display. “I’ve established a secure comms link with Elena Rostova. She’s currently on the ground in Geneva, running reconnaissance on the Helix BioCorp research campus.”
I stepped out from the cockpit jump seat, walking down the narrow aisle and taking a seat opposite Ethan, sliding my tactical vest across the table. “Elena? I thought she went off-grid after the Vienna extraction.”
“She did,” Ethan grinned, tapping a key to bring up a live encrypted video feed on his monitor. “Turns out she had a score to settle with the former Meridian directors heading up the Iron Veil. She volunteered to act as our local tactical spotter inside the city.”
The secure video feed flickered to life, resolving into a grainy, low-light image of Elena standing inside a dimly lit safehouse overlooking a sprawling, ultra-modern glass and steel campus nestled against the Swiss foothills. Helix BioCorp.
“Commander,” Elena’s voice came through the cabin speakers, clear and sharp. “Glad to see you made it across the Atlantic in one piece. You picked a hell of a time to come out of retirement.”
“Save the commentary, Elena. Give me the layout,” I ordered, pulling my combat knife from its sheath and running a testing thumb along the edge. “What are we looking at inside the facility?”
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“It’s a fortress disguised as a pharmaceutical research center,” Elena explained, pointing toward a digital architectural schematic overlaying her live feed. “Three subterranean levels housing quantum server mainframes, guarded by roughly forty private military contractors equipped with biometric access scanners and motion-activated turret grids. If you try to force your way through the front gates, the entire compound locks down in under ten seconds.”
“Good thing we aren't using the front gates,” Ethan interjected, hitting enter on his keyboard to transmit a secondary data packet to my tactical HUD. “I’ve mapped out their underground HVAC ventilation shafts. They lead directly down into Sub-Level Two, mere yards away from the primary server room core.”
