Chapter 6 - Smoke and Steel
The acrid scent of scorched copper and blown micro-circuitry hung heavy in the smoke-filled corridor of the Dulles transit annex. Marcus Hayes kept his Sig Sauer raised, his boots silent against the concrete floor as he crept toward the glowing red emergency lights of the server bay. Behind him, Officer Miller dragged a handcuffed and swearing Harrison Vance, while the federal marshal swept the opposite flank.
A heavy metal door at the far end of the hallway hung off its reinforced hinges, smoking gently from a localized shaped charge.
"Federal agents! Drop whatever you're carrying and put your hands where we can see them!" Marcus shouted, his voice echoing with absolute judicial command through the narrow space.
Inside the vault, the sound of frantic, muffled typing stopped dead.
For two agonizing seconds, the only noise was the high-pitched whine of an emergency cooling fan. Then, a dark silhouette burst out from behind a rack of smoking server blades, a heavy carbon-fiber briefcase clutched tightly in one hand.
"Get out of the way!" the intruder snarled, raising a heavy-duty tactical flare gun and firing it directly down the corridor.
The brilliant red flare hissed through the air, trailing white-hot sparks as it hurtled straight toward Marcus's chest. With reflexive precision, Marcus ducked to the side, the scorching projectile grazing his charcoal lapel before slamming into the drywall behind him and igniting a patch of insulation in a burst of violent sparks.
"Fire!" Miller yelled, shoving Harrison Vance behind a concrete pillar and unholstering his weapon.
"Hold your fire! Don't hit the primary architecture!" Marcus commanded, lunging forward through the haze.
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The intruder didn't hesitate. He kicked open the rear emergency exit leading directly to the tarmac loading docks, the roar of jet engines flooding the hallway as he sprinted out into the damp afternoon air. Marcus didn't miss a beat. He bolted through the smoking doorway right behind him, his eyes locked onto the black carbon-fiber briefcase containing the master racketeering data.
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