Chapter 36
The downtown high-rise was a sleek monument of glass and steel, heavily guarded by Aethelgard mercenaries disguised as corporate security. Rachel and Gabriel, dressed in unassuming business attire, bypassed the main lobby using forged maintenance credentials Bruno had procured. They ascended via the service elevator to the forty-second floor, where the temporary command center was located.
The corridor was silent, save for the hum of the air conditioning. Two armed guards stood outside the server room doors.
Gabriel moved with the predatory, silent grace that had made him a legend in the underworld. He dispatched the guards with two swift, non-lethal strikes to the carotid arteries, catching their bodies before they hit the floor.
Rachel quickly swiped a cloned keycard, and the heavy doors slid open. The server room was a chillingly cold, blue-lit sanctuary of blinking lights and humming hard drives.
"You have five minutes," Gabriel whispered, taking a defensive position by the door, his hand resting on his suppressed sidearm.
Rachel sprinted to the main terminal. She plugged her specialized transceiver into the console and began typing furiously. Lines of code cascaded across the screen as she initiated the brute-force sequence to breach the local firewall.
"Come on, come on," Rachel muttered, beads of sweat forming on her forehead despite the cold room.
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Suddenly, an alarm blared—a shrill, piercing klaxon that echoed through the high-rise. Red emergency lights flooded the server room.
"They detected the breach!" Gabriel shouted over the noise. "We have company coming!"
