Daniel charged into the bedroom like an enraged lion. Before Vanessa could shift her aim, Daniel grabbed her wrist, twisting the gun upward. A shot discharged into the ceiling, shattering the crystal chandelier above.
Emily rolled onto the carpet to dodge falling glass.
Daniel disarmed Vanessa in one swift motion, throwing the pistol across the room, and pinned Vanessa’s arms behind her back.
“Emily! Grab the card! Let’s go!” Daniel shouted.
Emily snatched the black key card from the vanity, scrambled to her feet, and ran toward the door. Daniel released Vanessa, who collapsed onto the floor, weeping and screaming curses at them.
They sprinted down the service stairwell, bursting out into the alleyway where Daniel’s car was waiting.
“Are you hit?” Daniel asked frantically, grabbing Emily’s shoulders as soon as they were outside.
“I’m fine! I have the card!” Emily held up the black piece of plastic.
“Good,” Daniel said, his eyes burning with intense resolve. “Now let’s go finish this.”
The Apex Storage facility was located in the industrial basement beneath the city’s old financial district. The air was cold, filled with the loud hum of cooling fans and server racks.
Using the stolen biometric card and the access codes Daniel had extracted from his cousin’s briefing, they bypassed the outer security gates and made their way into Vault 4B—the private server room owned by Sterling Enterprises.
Rows of tall black server towers stood like silent monoliths in the dim blue light of the room.
“Which one is it?” Emily asked, her voice echoing softly off the concrete walls.
Daniel referenced the blueprint on his phone. “Rack 12. The main physical drive containing the original unedited ledgers from Reed & Sterling.”
They walked down the central aisle until they found Rack 12. Daniel pulled a specialized extraction tool from his jacket, inserting it into the drive bay. The green lights blinked rapidly as the system initiated the backup download onto an encrypted external hard drive.
Progress: 15%… 32%… 58%…
“Come on… come on…” Emily whispered, watching the progress bar.
Suddenly, the heavy iron security doors behind them slammed shut with a deafening CLANG!
The blue lights vanished, replaced by flashing red emergency beacons. A harsh alarm siren began to blare throughout the vault.
“System lockdown initiated,” an automated electronic voice announced overhead. “Halon gas deployment in sixty seconds.”
Emily ran to the heavy iron door, pushing against it with all her strength. “It’s sealed from the outside! Daniel, they locked us in!”
Through the thick reinforced glass window of the vault door, a figure stepped into view.
It was Margaret Vance.
Beside her stood Arthur Sterling’s chief security officer, holding a remote override device.
Margaret looked through the glass at her son, her expression cold, devoid of maternal warmth.
“Mother!” Daniel yelled, pounding his fist against the reinforced glass. “Open this door!”
“I warned you, Daniel,” Margaret’s voice came through the intercom system, cold and detached. “I warned you not to sacrifice this family for that girl. Now, you have forced my hand.”
Halon gas deployment in 45 seconds…
The synthetic electronic voice echoed cold and unfeeling inside the locked vault.
“Mother, stop this madness!” Daniel roared, slamming his shoulder against the heavy door. “You’re going to kill us!”