Chapter 7 - The Breach
Smoke poured into the panic room as the heavy steel door collapsed onto the floor.
A mercenary stepped through the breach with his rifle raised.
I swung the heavy wrench with devastating force, striking his weapon and knocking it out of his hands.
I delivered a swift kick to his knee, dropping him instantly to the ground.
Captain Miller stepped into the doorway, aiming his pistol directly at my chest.
"Step away from the console, Lauren," Miller commanded.
I glanced at the monitor out of the corner of my eye.
The file transfer was at eighty percent.
"You sold out your own pilots for a comfortable retirement," I stated with pure disgust.
Miller's expression remained completely devoid of any remorse.
"The military is a business, Commander."
"Vanguard paid me enough to ensure my family will never have to worry about anything again."
"And you murdered American heroes to do it," Miles shouted from the top of the stairs.
Miles had managed to break free from his captors and was holding a captured rifle.
He fired a warning shot into the ceiling, forcing Miller to take cover in the hallway.
I used the distraction to press the emergency override button on the console.
The file transfer instantly jumped to one hundred percent and locked the system.
The evidence was now permanently secured on the Pentagon's internal servers.
"It is over, Miller," I shouted.
"The entire naval command now has the proof of your treason."
Miller let out a furious scream and blindly fired his weapon down into the basement.
A bullet grazed my shoulder, tearing through the fabric of my stolen sweatshirt.
The burning pain radiated down my arm, but I ignored it completely.
I grabbed Danny's wheelchair and pushed him toward the secondary escape hatch located in the back wall.
"Go, Danny," I urged, shoving him into the narrow dirt tunnel that led to the backyard.
I turned back to help Miles, but the older Marine was already walking down the stairs with a grim smile.
"I will hold them off, Commander," Miles said, raising his rifle toward the doorway.
"You need to get to the base and ensure those files reach the right people."
I hesitated, refusing to leave a fellow service member behind in a firefight.
"That is a direct order from a superior officer, Maddox," Miles barked.
I crawled into the escape tunnel just as heavily armed reinforcements flooded into the house above.
I emerged into the cool night air and sprinted through the dark suburban backyards.
I stole a bicycle from a nearby porch and pedaled furiously toward the naval base.
I knew that sending the files was only half the battle.
I had to physically authenticate the data with my own biometric signature before the system purged it as a potential cyber attack.
I reached the perimeter fence of the massive naval installation.
I scaled the chain link fence and dropped silently onto the restricted tarmac.
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I turned around to head toward the command center, but a dark figure stepped out from behind a parked jet.
It was Evan, and he was holding a military issue sidearm.
