Chapter 20
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Jax arrived exactly nine minutes later, driving a battered utility van that looked completely unremarkable on the outside but was lined with military-grade armor on the inside. He was a mountain of a man, his arms covered in tactical tattoos, carrying a duffel bag that clinked heavily with illicit weaponry.
"It's been a long time, Elena," Jax said, tossing the bag onto the concrete floor of the parking garage. He looked over at Chloe, offering a respectful nod. "You've got your father's eyes, kid. I'm sorry about Arthur."
"Thank you," Chloe said quietly, stepping forward. "Can you help us get into the bank?"
"The bank is a fortress, and Obsidian likely has a sniper team watching the front doors," Jax explained, pulling a detailed holographic blueprint from his pocket and projecting it onto the hood of Elena's SUV. "But Arthur wasn't an idiot. He didn't use a standard bank. He used a subterranean private vault beneath the old financial district."
Elena studied the glowing blue lines of the hologram. "There has to be a subterranean access point. A maintenance tunnel."
"There is," Jax pointed to a service grating near the subway lines. "But it’s guarded by a biometric lock. I can handle the physical security, but if we trip the digital alarms, the vault incinerates its contents automatically."
"Leave the digital alarms to me," Chloe interjected confidently, tapping her tablet. "I spent the last two years dismantling Eleanor's offshore banking security. A subterranean vault firewall is just code. I can build a localized spoofing loop to blind their sensors."
Jax looked at Elena, raising a thick eyebrow. "She’s got grit."
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"She’s a Vance," Elena said proudly, loading her tactical rifle. "Alright, here is the play. Jax, you take the point and clear the service tunnel. Chloe, you stay in the center and run the bypass on the biometric locks. I will cover our six and ensure no Obsidian operatives flank us from the subway lines."
They moved out, leaving the vehicles behind and descending into the damp, echoing darkness of the city's abandoned subway maintenance shafts. The air smelled of rust and old water. Every shadow seemed to conceal a threat, but the three of them moved with synchronized, lethal precision. They were no longer running. They were marching straight into the belly of the beast.
