Chapter 7 - The Inside Man.Victor did not hesitate for even a fraction of a second.
He sprinted forward, firing his weapon with deadly, calculated precision.
The narrow confines of the basement corridor gave the mercenaries nowhere to hide from his relentless assault.
Two of them fell instantly, their armor completely shredded by armor-piercing rounds.
The remaining two returned fire, forcing Victor to dive behind a massive concrete support pillar.
I slid across the polished floor, taking cover behind a row of heavy metal utility crates.
We were entirely pinned down, and the digital countdown in my head was rapidly ticking away to zero.
"I need covering fire!" I screamed to Victor, gripping my pistol tightly.
Victor nodded, leaning out from the pillar and unleashing a relentless hail of bullets.
I used the distraction to sprint toward a junction box mounted on the concrete wall.
With a single, well-placed shot, I blew the lock off the electrical panel and ripped the heavy door open.
Inside were the main power conduits for the entire subterranean sector.
I did not have the time to be elegant or careful.
I aimed my weapon directly into the clustered wiring and pulled the trigger three times.
Sparks showered the hallway as a massive electrical short sent the entire basement into absolute, pitch-black darkness.
The sudden loss of light neutralized the mercenaries' tactical advantage completely.
Using the darkness, Victor engaged them in brutal, hand-to-hand combat.
I could hear the sickening crunch of breaking bones and the choked gasps of dying men.
When the emergency red backup lights finally flickered on, Victor stood alone amidst the fallen bodies.
I rushed past him, scanning my biometric data on the reinforced server room door.
The heavy steel doors hissed open, revealing rows of humming, glowing mainframe towers.
I sprinted to the primary terminal, watching a terrifying progress bar on the massive central monitor.
The unauthorized data transfer was currently sitting at ninety-eight percent.
I grabbed the heavy emergency severance lever mounted on the wall, an analog fail-safe designed for catastrophic events.
With a primal scream of sheer exertion, I pulled the massive metal lever down with all my strength.
A loud mechanical clank echoed through the room as thick, fiber-optic cables were physically guillotined.
The glowing monitors instantly went black, plunging the server room into silence.
My encrypted phone immediately buzzed in my hand.
"Transfer failed, Ms. Escalante," my engineer reported, breathing a heavy sigh of relief.
"You severed the connection with less than ten seconds to spare."
I leaned heavily against the cooling racks, my entire body trembling with adrenaline.
We had successfully protected the money, but the betrayal still burned fiercely in my veins.
"Track Richard's location using his company-issued vehicle," I commanded the engineer coldly.
"He thought he could steal from my family and walk away."
Five minutes later, the engineer sent a set of GPS coordinates to my phone.
Richard was currently hiding at a private, VIP airstrip on the outskirts of the city.
He was waiting for a private jet to smuggle him out of the country with his expected payout.
"Victor," I said softly, staring at the glowing map on my screen.
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"We are going to the airport."
It was time to show Andrew's loyal followers exactly what happened when they crossed an Escalante.
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