Chapter 6 - The Server Room
I froze completely in the harsh, blinding glare of the SUV's headlights.
Arthur Vance stepped out of the heavy vehicle, his tailored wool coat blowing wildly in the night wind.
He kept the suppressed pistol perfectly and steadily leveled at us.
"My son has always been a colossal, embarrassing disappointment," Arthur sighed heavily.
"I suppose I will have to clean up his pathetic mess myself."
He motioned aggressively with the barrel of the gun for us to get into the back of his car.
Chloe slowly raised her empty hands, but she kept a tight, hidden grip on her purse.
"Arthur, you really don't have to do this," Chloe pleaded with fake desperation.
"Shut up, you cheap, disposable distraction," the old man barked.
That brief, arrogant moment of distraction was all I needed to act.
I grabbed a heavy, rusted metal trash can lid from the alley wall.
I hurled it directly at the SUV's windshield like a massive metal frisbee.
The thick glass shattered instantly into a thousand blinding spiderweb cracks.
Arthur flinched violently and fired a wild shot that sparked harmlessly against the brick wall.
"Run!" I screamed at Chloe at the top of my lungs.
We sprinted frantically back through the clinic's side entrance.
Another agonizing, breath-stealing contraction gripped my stomach.
I stumbled hard on the tile, but Chloe grabbed my arm and hoisted me back up.
"There's a main server room on the second floor!" she yelled over the blaring security alarms.
"If we can connect my phone to their mainframe, we can broadcast Julian's cartel files to the world!"
We practically crawled on our hands and knees up the emergency stairwell.
The terrifying sound of heavy combat boots pounding against the concrete echoed loudly below us.
Arthur had sent his private, heavily armed security team into the building.
We burst onto the second floor and found a heavy door marked with a yellow warning sign.
Chloe expertly shot the electronic lock pad with her silver handgun.
We shoved the heavy steel door open and quickly barricaded it with a massive metal filing cabinet.
The freezing room was filled with humming, towering racks of blinking computer servers.
I collapsed into a rolling swivel chair, clutching my stomach in absolute, blinding agony.
"Do it quickly," I gasped, feeling hot tears stream uncontrollably down my face.
Chloe plugged her phone into the main terminal using a loose USB cable.
She rapidly typed complex administrative commands on the illuminated keyboard.
"I'm uploading the cartel ledgers and the life insurance fraud policies to every major news outlet," she said triumphantly.
The green progress bar on the screen slowly ticked up to fifty percent.
Suddenly, a massive, terrifying impact shook the heavy steel door.
Arthur's men were using a heavy tactical battering ram.
The metal filing cabinet groaned and buckled under the immense, relentless pressure.
"Hurry!" I sobbed, feeling the baby physically push lower into my pelvis.
The computer screen flashed red with a terrifying, undeniable warning message.
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"Upload completely blocked," Chloe whispered in absolute horror.
"Someone just physically cut the external fiber-optic cables to the building."
