Chapter 7 - Facing The Living Dead
Thirty minutes later, the storm had fully enveloped the city, turning the afternoon into a dark, roaring deluge. The rain lashed against the red-brick building with relentless fury, masking the hum of our SUV’s idling engine as we parked behind a line of commercial recycling dumpsters two hundred yards from the perimeter fence.
""The substation’s auxiliary terminal is in the utility room on the ground floor,"" Eliam said, checking the magazine of his sidearm before sliding it back into his shoulder holster. He handed Rebecca an encrypted flash drive. ""Once the suppression alarm sounds, you have exactly twelve minutes to patch this into the terminal and begin the upload. Clara stays in the vehicle.""
""No,"" I said firmly, reaching for the door handle.
Eliam grabbed my wrist, his brow furrowing with sudden intensity. ""Clara, this isn't an argument. It's a live tactical situation.""
""And I’m the only one here who doesn't have an active warrant or a corporate hit out on her face,"" I countered, pulling Dr. Elena Vance's biometric keycard from my pocket and holding it up between two fingers. ""You two are already flagged on their interior cameras. The moment either of you steps through that service door, the security team will swarm the corridor. But this card belongs to Elena Vance. The external readers haven't been purged yet—Becca said so herself at the diner.""
Rebecca leaned forward, her eyes widening. ""She's right, Eliam. The system updates security registries at the top of the hour. We have fourteen minutes before this badge is permanently deactivated.""
Eliam stared at me, the conflict raging behind his eyes. For eleven years, he had treated me like something delicate, something to be shielded from the ugliness of the world. But looking at me now, soaked in rainwater and holding the key to our salvation, he realized that the woman he loved wasn't made of glass.
""Two minutes,"" Eliam said through gritted teeth, his voice thick with reluctant pride. ""You swipe the card, push the emergency override breaker behind the maintenance panel, and walk straight back to this car. If anything looks wrong, you run. Understood?""
""Understood.""
I slipped out of the SUV into the blinding downpour. The cold rain drove against my face, stinging my cheeks, but my mind was completely calm. I walked across the empty parking lot, keeping my head down against the wind, heading directly for the secondary service entrance on the eastern wall of the red-brick building.
The digital reader beside the reinforced steel door blinked with an angry red light.
I took a deep breath, raised the badge, and held it flush against the glass sensor.
Beep.
The LED indicator flashed bright green. The magnetic lock disengaged with a heavy, satisfying clunk.
I pushed the door open, stepping into a dimly lit, tiled hallway that smelled of ozone and industrial disinfectant. The silence inside was suffocating. At the far end of the hall stood the gray metal maintenance panel Eliam had described.
I moved swiftly, my wet sneakers squeaking softly on the floor. I pulled the panel door open, revealing a maze of colored wiring and heavy toggle switches. Near the bottom was a large, red mechanical lever labeled: EMERGENCY HALON SUPPRESSION - SYSTEM OVERRIDE.
I gripped the cold steel handle, prepared to yank it down.
""I wouldn't do that if I were you, Mrs. Vance,"" a cold, cultured voice echoed from the shadows behind me.
I froze.
Stepping out from an adjoining administrative office was a tall, silver-haired man in an immaculate navy suit, holding a small, silenced pistol pointed directly at my chest.
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It was Marcus Kane, the CEO of Aegis Biometrics—a man whose face had adorned business magazine covers for the past five years.
""Or should I say, Mrs. Sterling?"" Kane smiled, his teeth gleaming like ivory in the dim fluorescent light. ""Your husband is an exceptionally capable operative. But he underestimated how closely we monitor our own network.""
