Chapter 7 - The Master Override
Manager Sterling aggressively reloaded his weapon while leaning heavily against the floral wallpaper.
"I managed to escape the lobby when the police sirens distracted his men," Sterling explained breathlessly.
Vance rushed forward and supported the brave manager's heavy weight on his shoulder.
"You are a true hero, Sterling, but we have to get to the server room right now," Vance said.
Sterling pulled a glowing blue data drive from his ruined suit jacket pocket.
"I already downloaded the master override codes from the security desk," Sterling revealed.
"All you have to do is plug this drive into the main terminal, and the servers will wipe."
Maya took the glowing blue drive with violently trembling fingers.
"I will go do it, you two need to hide and tend to those wounds," Maya insisted bravely.
Vance shook his head and refused to let a housekeeper fight his battles.
"Julian has my goddaughter, I am not leaving her behind to die," Vance declared stubbornly.
They carefully navigated the remaining flights of stairs up to the fortieth floor.
The massive glass doors of the server room were completely blown off their hinges.
They slowly crept into the dark room filled with towering, glowing computer mainframes.
Julian was standing at the primary console, watching a digital progress bar slowly fill up.
Eleanor was tied to an office chair directly next to him, weeping in absolute terror.
Julian had strapped a massive brick of C4 plastic explosives directly to her chest.
"The download is at ninety percent, and then I am a free man," Julian gloated to his hostage.
Maya knew she had to insert the blue drive before that progress bar reached a hundred.
She signaled for Vance and Sterling to flank Julian from the left side of the servers.
Maya took a deep breath and stepped completely out of the dark shadows.
"The download is cancelled, Julian," Maya stated loudly to draw his attention.
Julian spun around with a completely unhinged, psychopathic smile on his face.
He did not raise his silver pistol to shoot her.
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Instead, he held up a small black detonator with a blinking red light.
"If my thumb leaves this button, Eleanor turns into pink mist," Julian laughed.
