Chapter 31 - The Tipping Point
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"Try it," Madison whispered.
She didn't lower her gun. She didn't look at Ethan. She kept her focus entirely on Victor's left eye.
"Maddie..." Ethan whimpered softly from behind her.
"Stay quiet, Ethan," Madison ordered, her voice dead steady. "He's bluffing."
"Am I?" Victor smiled thinly. He raised his right hand, making a subtle gesture with his fingers.
Behind Victor, the lead mercenary raised his assault rifle, aiming it directly at Ethan's head.
Before the mercenary could squeeze the trigger, a loud, deafening crash shattered the silence above them. High-caliber sniper rounds punched directly through the stained-glass windows at the top of the cathedral crypt, slamming into the two rear mercenaries and tearing them off their feet.
Victor gasped, ducking down behind a marble pillar as stone fragments exploded in all directions.
"Sniper!" the remaining mercenary screamed, firing wildly into the upper rafters.
Arthur didn't miss the opening. He lunged forward, sweeping the guard's rifle aside with his forearm and driving a heavy tactical knife into the operative's chest vest gap.
Madison stepped around the pillar, raising her pistol to finish Victor, but The Architect was already moving with surprising speed. He lunged at the console, pressing his right palm flat against the biometric scanner while turning his own personal key ring into the final slot.
"System override!" the automated vault voice roared. "Master access granted!"
The massive steel vault door swung open with a pneumatic hiss, revealing a brightly lit, sterile white control room filled with rows of black server racks stretching dark into the mountain rock.
Victor scrambled inside, pressing a heavy red button on the interior bulkhead.
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"Lockdown!" Victor screamed.
The iron door began to swing shut at high speed.
