Chapter 17 - The Dead Man’s Switch and the Rising Tide
The elevator surged upward,
the floor vibrating beneath my feet as I watched the numbers climb.
G,
1,
2,
3.
I wasn't heading for the exit.
I was heading for the server room on the fourth floor.
If I wanted to save Clara,
I had to do more than just escape;
I had to blind the enemy.
I had to cut the nerves of the Vanguard Group's local operation.
The doors slid open,
and I was met with the sound of alarms,
muted but persistent.
They knew I was out.
The facility was in lockdown,
which meant the only way out was to crash the entire system.
I ran down the hallway,
the stolen pistol heavy in my hand,
its cold steel a comfort I never thought I’d feel.
I passed a window and saw the city outside.
It was burning.
The release of the witness protection names had triggered exactly what I feared:
chaos.
The criminals who had been hidden for years were being hunted by the syndicates they had betrayed.
The police were overwhelmed,
and the streets were a battlefield.
The "Dead Man’s Switch" hadn't just exposed the corrupt;
it had set the world on fire.
I felt a pang of horror,
the weight of the lives I had just sacrificed to save my own.
Was this justice?
Or was this just the final,
violent act of a woman who had lost her way?
I didn't have time for a trial of conscience.
I reached the server room,
the door reinforced with biometric scanners.
I used the severed thumb of the guard from the basement—a gruesome necessity that made my stomach churn—and the door hissed open.
The room was a cathedral of blinking lights and humming cooling fans.
Rows upon rows of black towers,
holding the secrets of a thousand lives,
the financial records of a city,
and the locations of every Vanguard site.
I didn't need to be a hacker.
I had the key Echo had sent to my brain through the code.
I plugged the guard’s keycard into the terminal and began the upload.
"What are you doing,
Victoria?"
A voice boomed through the speakers.
Thorne.
"I’m finishing it,
Marcus,"
I said,
typing frantically as the progress bar crawled across the screen.
"You think you can just burn it all down?"
Thorne’s voice was distorted,
angry.
"You’re killing thousands of innocent people.
The stability you’re destroying is the only thing keeping this country together."
"The stability you’re protecting is built on the bodies of daughters like mine,"
I shouted at the empty room.
"If the country has to burn to stop people like you,
then let it turn to ash."
"You’re a hypocrite,"
he hissed.
"You’re just another criminal now.
A murderer.
A traitor.
There’s no robe long enough to cover what you’ve become."
"Then it’s a good thing I’m not wearing one,"
I said,
hitting the final 'enter' key.
The room went silent for a heartbeat,
and then every light in the building turned red.
The servers began to scream,
their internal fans spinning at impossible speeds.
Smoke began to curl from the racks.
The data was being purged,
overwritten with a million lines of pure,
digital gibberish.
The Vanguard Group's hold on the city's infrastructure was dying.
The elevators stopped.
The locks released.
The security cameras went dark.
I was free,
but I was also alone in a building filled with men who now had nothing to lose by killing me.
I grabbed a fire axe from the wall and headed for the emergency exit.
The stairs were my only way out now.
As I burst through the door,
I heard the sound of boots on the concrete below.
They were coming for me.
I didn't run down.
I ran up.
I needed to get to the roof.
I needed the sky.
And I needed the one person who still owed me a favor.
I reached the roof,
the wind nearly knocking me off my feet.
The city was a carpet of orange flames and blue police lights.
The sound of sirens was a constant,
mournful howl.
I stood at the edge,
looking at the horizon.
A black helicopter was hovering a mile away,
its searchlight scanning the streets.
I pulled a flare from the guard’s belt and struck it.
The red light filled the sky,
a bloody signal in the dark.
"Come on,
Marcus,"
I whispered.
"Show me how much you really want to save the world."
The helicopter turned.
It wasn't Vanguard.
It was the Navy.
Julian.
May you like
He had survived the silent sea,
and he had come for his mother.
