Chapter 17 - The Freefall
The terrifying sensation of absolute freefall violently consumed my entire body as we plummeted down the dark, echoing elevator shaft. The cold air roared aggressively past my ears, completely drowning out the sound of the cartel enforcers firing their weapons from the catwalk high above us.
David expertly controlled the friction on the heavy repelling rope, abruptly halting our terrifying descent exactly twenty floors down. The sudden jolt painfully snapped my tactical harness, but the specialized equipment held firm.
We violently swung through an open, unfinished doorway and crashed heavily onto the dusty concrete floor of the twenty-second level.
I gasped for air, my entire body shaking with raw, unadulterated adrenaline. David immediately unclipped our harnesses and dragged me away from the open shaft just as heavy concrete debris showered down from the bullets striking the walls above us.
"They know exactly where we are, they will lock down the entire perimeter," David whispered urgently, rapidly checking the remaining ammunition in his weapon.
I pulled out my secure laptop and connected it to the building's internal Wi-Fi network, which I had compromised earlier. I brought up the live feed of the construction site's security cameras.
The screen displayed an absolute nightmare. Over thirty heavily armed cartel mercenaries were completely surrounding the ground floor, locking every single exit with heavy chains and deploying aggressive tactical teams to sweep the building floor by floor.
Alejandro Vargas had arrived at the site, having rushed from the gala. On the security feed, he looked entirely unhinged, screaming violently at his men to find us and secure the stolen data drive at all costs.
"We cannot fight our way down," David assessed coldly, realizing the sheer, overwhelming numerical advantage of the enemy.
I looked around the unfinished twenty-second floor. It was a massive, open expanse of exposed steel beams, massive glass panels waiting to be installed, and heavy construction equipment.
I smiled a brilliant, dangerous smile as my architectural genius instantly visualized a brand new plan.
I completely closed my laptop and looked at David with absolute confidence.
"We aren't going down to fight them," I declared firmly, walking toward a massive, heavy-duty industrial construction crane control console bolted to the floor. "We are going to bring the entire building down on their heads."
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I aggressively smashed the glass cover of the control console and began rapidly hotwiring the heavy electrical panel. As the lead architect of massive skyscrapers, I knew exactly how these industrial systems were wired.
I was about to turn Vargas's billion-dollar money-laundering fortress into the absolute deadliest weapon in the city, and the cartel boss had absolutely no idea what was about to hit him.
