Chapter 32 - Into the Vault
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"No!" Madison screamed.
She dove under the heavy closing door, rolling across the slick concrete floor of the vault just before the three-ton steel barrier slammed shut with a deafening CLANG.
The locking pins engaged instantly. She was trapped inside.
Madison scrambled to her feet, her pistol raised, sweeping the brightly lit server hall.
The air inside the vault was freezing, kept at sub-zero temperatures to cool the massive supercomputers humming along the walls. Row after row of glowing blue server lights flickered in the sterile silence.
At the far end of the central walkway, Victor Sterling stood before a master terminal, his fingers flying across a touch-screen console as a progress bar filled on a giant wall monitor above him.
GLOBAL BROADCAST INITIATION: 84% COMPLETE.
"You're too late, Commander!" Victor shouted, his voice echoing off the concrete walls. "In sixty seconds, thirty terabytes of classified intelligence records will be uploaded to a thousand public dark-web nodes! The world order ends today!"
Madison walked down the center aisle slowly, her combat boots clicking rhythmically against the floor. Her weapon was raised, steady, unwavering.
"Step away from the terminal, Victor," she said.
Victor pulled a small, sleek nickel-plated pistol from his coat pocket and pointed it at her.
"You think you're a hero, Madison?" Victor laughed bitterly. "Your father was a traitor to his nation! He built the algorithms that made this vault possible!"
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"My father died trying to stop you!" Madison yelled back.
Victor fired two shots. Madison ducked behind a metal server rack as the bullets ricocheted wildly off the steel casing, sending sparks flying through the cold air.
