Chapter 18 - Fire in the Ice
The atrium descended into absolute chaos.
The emergency backup lights flickered on, casting the room in a bloody, pulsing red glow.
The deafening roar of automatic weapons fire echoed off the concrete walls as Lewis and I moved through the shadows with lethal, synchronized precision.
The Admiral's elite guards were highly trained, but they were not accustomed to fighting seasoned Tier One operators in close-quarters darkness.
I slid across the polished floor, shooting out the kneecaps of a massive mercenary before finishing him with a clean headshot.
Lewis bounded over a shattered desk, engaging three men in brutal, hand-to-hand combat using his rifle stock and a combat blade.
I provided covering fire, systematically eliminating the snipers attempting to set up positions on the upper catwalks.
The room smelled heavily of cordite, ozone, and copper.
Admiral Vance had retreated behind the heavy blast doors of the control room, desperate to initiate the facility's self-destruct sequence to bury the evidence and our bodies under tons of solid granite.
We couldn't let him destroy the server drives containing the proof of his treason.
I signaled to Lewis, pointing toward the reinforced glass of the control room.
We moved together in a perfect tactical bounding maneuver, alternating our fire to keep the remaining guards pinned down behind cover.
I reached the control room door, pulled a block of C4 explosive from my vest, and molded it directly to the heavy electronic locking mechanism.
I slammed the detonator, grabbed Lewis, and dove behind a thick concrete pillar.
The explosion ripped the heavy steel doors entirely off their hinges, sending a massive shockwave of heat and shrapnel through the corridor.
We rushed into the control room before the smoke could clear.
Admiral Vance was frantically typing access codes into the mainframe terminal, his previously arrogant demeanor entirely replaced by raw, frantic panic.
I raised my weapon and shot him cleanly in the right shoulder, the heavy round spinning him violently away from the console.
He collapsed to the floor, grasping his bleeding arm and screaming in agony.
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Lewis quickly moved to the terminal, inserting a highly encrypted, military-grade hard drive into the port to begin downloading the massive trove of incriminating files.
I stood over the bleeding Admiral, aiming my pistol directly at his chest, feeling an immense, satisfying wave of absolute victory.
