Chapter 21
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The subterranean maintenance tunnel was suffocatingly narrow, the walls slick with centuries of grime and condensation. Jax led the way, his suppressed rifle raised, his night-vision optics cutting through the pitch-black environment. Chloe followed closely behind, the faint, blue glow of her tablet illuminating her focused face, while Elena guarded the rear, her senses dialed to maximum intensity.
"We are approaching the primary security bulkhead," Jax whispered over the encrypted comms channel. "I have visual on two automated sentry turrets mounted on the ceiling."
"Don't move," Chloe whispered back, her fingers flying across her screen. "They operate on motion-tracking thermal sensors. If you step into their grid, they'll turn us into Swiss cheese."
Chloe knelt in the damp sludge of the tunnel, connecting a hardline cable from her tablet to an exposed junction box on the cavern wall. Lines of complex code cascaded down her screen as she initiated the spoofing algorithm.
"I'm flooding their thermal optics with ambient temperature feedback," Chloe announced quietly. "The sensors are blind. You have a thirty-second window to cross the grid and disable the hardware."
Jax didn't hesitate. He sprinted across the concrete floor, moving with terrifying speed for a man his size. He reached the bulkhead door, pulling a specialized electromagnetic pulse charge from his belt and slapping it against the primary power conduit.
A muted, electric pop echoed through the tunnel. The red lights on the sentry turrets instantly went dark.
"Clear," Jax called out.
Elena and Chloe hurried forward to join him at the massive, reinforced steel door.
"The biometric lock is dead, but the manual deadbolts are still engaged," Jax grunted, pulling a heavy thermite cutting torch from his bag. "Stand back. This is going to get bright."
Sparks flew like a miniature firework display as the thermite effortlessly sliced through the heavy steel hinges. With a heavy kick, Jax sent the door crashing inward, revealing the gleaming, sterile white walls of the private subterranean vault.
"Arthur's box is number 404," Elena said, stepping into the pristine room, her weapon raised and sweeping for threats.
Chloe rushed over to the designated safety deposit box, inserting a decryption key into the electronic lock. The drawer clicked open with a soft hiss. Inside lay a physical, leather-bound ledger and a high-capacity encrypted hard drive.
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"We got it," Chloe smiled, pulling the ledger out.
"Then let's move," Elena said, her earpiece suddenly crackling with static. "My perimeter sensors just tripped. We have company in the subway tunnels. Obsidian is here."
