Chapter 19 - The Rescue
Cameron dragged himself out of the data center, leaving Silas bleeding in the dark. The smoke in the hallways was growing dangerously thick, burning his lungs with every ragged breath. He had stopped the transfer, but the victory felt hollow. He needed to find Miller, and he needed to find Hope.
He forced his way up the emergency stairwell, his injured arm leaving a trail of blood on the concrete wall. When he reached the twentieth floor, where the explosion had occurred, the devastation was absolute. The hallway was a twisted landscape of scorched drywall, shattered glass, and sparking electrical wires.
Cameron called out Miller’s name, his voice hoarse and desperate. For a long, agonizing minute, there was only the sound of crackling flames. Then, from beneath a collapsed section of the ceiling, he heard a weak cough.
Cameron rushed forward, digging through the heavy debris with his bare, bleeding hands. He uncovered Miller, who was pinned beneath a massive steel support beam. The security chief was covered in dust and blood, his breathing shallow, but he was alive. It took every ounce of Cameron’s remaining strength to leverage a piece of rebar and lift the beam just enough for Miller to drag himself free.
Miller leaned heavily against Cameron, offering a weak, bloodstained smile. He told Cameron that before the explosion, he had intercepted a communication from Elena. She had kept the girl at a private airfield on the edge of the city, preparing to use her as a hostage to secure a flight out of the country if the mission failed.
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Cameron’s eyes hardened into cold steel. The police sirens were finally wailing in the distance, responding to the massive fire consuming the skyscraper. He knew the authorities would find Silas and the evidence of the syndicate's attack in the basement. His company was in ruins, but his mission was not over.
He helped Miller down to the ground floor, bypassing the police perimeter through the same medical waste tunnels they had used days ago. They found an abandoned security vehicle in the parking garage. Cameron put Miller in the passenger seat, wrapped a tourniquet tightly around his own bleeding arm, and slammed his foot on the gas pedal, tearing out into the rainy night toward the airfield.
