Chapter 9 - The Wire
Linda pointed her weapon directly at my forehead.
"Kick the drive across the floor," she commanded.
I looked at Mark, who was trembling violently in his chair, pale from blood loss.
"If you shoot me, you will never decrypt the files," I bluffed.
"The drive is biometric, locked directly to my pulse."
Linda hesitated for a fraction of a second, but that was all I needed.
I lunged forward, kicking a heavy steel pipe into her shins before she could pull the trigger.
She stumbled backward, firing a wild shot that shattered a window above my head.
I tackled her to the concrete floor, twisting her wrist until she dropped the gun.
We struggled fiercely in the dark, but my years of military combat training easily overpowered her.
I pinned her face to the ground and locked her arms behind her back with heavy zip-ties from my tactical belt.
I immediately rushed over to Mark and cut the ropes binding him to the chair.
"Are you okay?" I asked, checking his head wound.
Mark nodded weakly, but then his eyes widened in absolute terror as he looked down at his own chest.
Linda began laughing hysterically from the floor.
I ripped open Mark's torn shirt and saw a thick brick of plastic explosives strapped to his ribs.
A digital timer was rapidly counting down from sixty seconds.
"You might have beaten me, Colonel," Linda sneered.
May you like
"But when that bomb goes off, there will be nothing left of you or the evidence."
I stared at the complex wiring of the bomb, my heart hammering in my ears.
