Chapter 10 - The Vault's Final Card
The air inside the subterranean archive grew thick with the choking stench of cordite, ozone, and burning rubber. Spent shell casings littered the concrete floor around my boots as I fired another controlled burst down the corridor, forcing the remaining Apex operatives to retreat behind a concrete pillar.
"Download complete!" Colonel Sterling roared over the deafening clatter of automatic gunfire. He yanked the ruggedized thumb drive from the terminal port and tucked it safely into his tactical vest. "We have everything! Every ledger, every bank routing number, every name!"
"We need to get out of here now!" General Vance yelled, ducking as a heavy volume of enemy fire chewed through the archive crates above his head. "They're bringing in heavy breaching foam to seal the exits!"
"There’s an emergency drainage sluice behind the main server racks!" Sterling pointed toward the back of the room where a heavy wheel-valve was embedded in the stone wall. "It drops straight down into the city’s deep-level flood tunnels! It’s our only way out!"
"Move, move, move!" I ordered, laying down a continuous wall of suppressive fire to cover Colonel Sterling and General Vance as they scrambled toward the back of the room.
Once they reached the valve, Sterling threw his entire weight against the wheel, turning it with a metallic groan until the heavy steel floor panel beneath our feet slid sideways, revealing a dark, rushing cascade of water plunging into the abyss below.
"Go! I'll cover the rear!" I shouted, backing slowly toward the opening while keeping my rifle trained on the smoke-filled corridor entrance.
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Two Apex operatives suddenly charged out of the smoke, raising their weapons to fire. I squeezed the trigger twice, dropping the first and winging the second, before diving backward through the open floor panel just as a hail of bullets chewed up the concrete where I had stood a second earlier.
The cold, rushing water of the flood tunnel swallowed me whole, the darkness closing in as I plunged into the freezing current, clutching the rifle to my chest with the master archive drive secured safely against my heart.
