Chapter 13 - The Noose Tightens
High above the subterranean escape route, Victoria stood in the shattered server room, her face an unreadable mask of cold fury. The emergency strobes had been shut off, replaced by the harsh glare of temporary halogen work lights. The three mercenaries stood before her, bruised and humiliated, staring firmly at the ground.
"You let a nurse and a disgraced researcher overpower you," Victoria stated quietly. Her voice did not echo, but it carried a lethal weight that made the heavily armed men flinch.
"Ma'am, they tripped the fire suppression and blinded us," the lead mercenary stammered, clutching his broken wrist. "By the time we recovered, they had vanished into the old air shafts."
"I do not pay you for excuses, Marcus," Victoria said, walking over to the main terminal. The screens were dead, the root directories entirely wiped. "They have the omega files. If that data reaches a public network, my life's work is finished, and you all go to a federal supermax prison."
She turned to a slim, sharply dressed woman standing quietly in the corner—her chief of security, Anya.
"Anya. I want this entire city locked down," Victoria ordered smoothly. "Scrub the traffic cameras, monitor all outgoing internet traffic, and put a bounty on their heads in the underground. One million dollars for the drive. Two million if they are brought to me alive."
"And the child, ma'am?" Anya asked, tapping notes into her tablet.
"Leo is safely secured in the penthouse suite at the tower," Victoria replied, a chilling smile touching the corners of her mouth. "Prepare the medical wing there. The final procedure will begin tomorrow at dawn, regardless of what happens tonight. I will not let my legacy die just because of a temporary data breach."
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"Yes, ma'am," Anya nodded. "We will find them. They can't run forever."
Victoria looked down at the crushed red toy car that one of the guards had recovered from the hospital room. She crushed it further under her heel, splintering the plastic into dust. "They don't have to run forever. They only have to make one mistake. And Elara is far too emotional to play a perfect game."
