Chapter 7 - The Data Dump
Bullets shredded the VIP booth, tearing through the velvet couches and shattering the neon fixtures. Elias pulled Clara down beneath the overturned table.
"Plug the drive into the main server rack!" Elias yelled, pointing to a towering black monolith of computers humming in the corner of the booth. "Jax's system has an auto-decrypt protocol! Do it now!"
Clara crawled through the glass and debris, her hands shaking violently. She jammed the flash drive into the server port. A holographic screen blared to life, a progress bar moving agonizingly slow. Decrypting... 20%... 40%...
Elias popped up from behind the table, firing precise, calculated shots. He wasn't spraying bullets; he was executing targets. One enforcer dropped, a bullet directly through the visor of his helmet. Another fell backward over the bar, his chest plate shattered.
But there were too many. The enforcers were advancing, laying down heavy suppressive fire. Elias was running out of ammo.
Decrypting... 80%...
"Hurry!" Elias shouted, ducking as a shotgun blast blew a massive hole in the wall inches from his head.
"It's almost done!" Clara screamed, her fingers flying across the keyboard, setting up the automated email dump to every major news outlet in the country.
100%. Decryption complete.
"Send it!"
Clara slammed the enter key. The screen flashed bright green: DATA TRANSMITTED.
At that exact moment, Jax, who had been hiding behind the bar, popped up with a heavy revolver. "You ruined my club!" he screamed, aiming at Clara.
Elias threw his empty pistol directly at Jax's face, striking him squarely in the nose. As Jax stumbled back, Elias grabbed a heavy glass bottle from the floor and hurled it at the main power breaker on the wall.
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The bottle shattered, shorting the circuit. The entire speakeasy plunged into absolute, pitch-black darkness.
"Run!" Elias grabbed Clara's hand, using his memory of the room's layout to navigate the dark, pushing past the confused and blinded enforcers, and crashing through the emergency exit into the subway tunnels once again.
