Chapter 13 - The Maze in the Dark
The lights inside the cavernous underground garage extinguished all at once. The sleek marble hall was plunged into pitch-black darkness, save for the green and red tactical lasers sweeping through the lingering dust.
""Thermal scopes on,"" the lead mercenary ordered in a flat, synthesized voice. ""Target the heat signatures.""
The mercenaries raised their rifles, flipping down their night-vision goggles. But instead of human silhouettes, their optics bloomed into blinding, searing white flares.
Leo had opened the emergency steam purge lines across the floor. Superheated water vapor hissed from the floor drains, blanketing the lower four feet of the room in dense, boiling fog that completely blinded thermal imaging.
""Switch to manual lights! Flashlights on!"" Julian screamed, coughing as the humid heat hit his lungs.
High above them, perched on the structural steel catwalks among the hydraulic crane tracks, Leo moved silently in his worn boots. In his hand, he carried a remote pneumatic valve controller wired directly to the facility's main fuel distribution manifold.
""Bay one cleared!"" a contractor yelled.
""Bay two cleared!"" another called out.
Leo whispered into the tiny two-way radio clipped to his collar. ""Now, Marcus.""
Fifty yards away, Marcus Vance stepped out from behind a concrete pillar into the beam of a contractor's flashlight. ""Julian.""
The contractor raised his rifle, but Heinrich fired from the shadows above. A single, high-caliber round took out the weapon from the guard's hands, sending him tumbling backward.
""Kill him!"" Julian shrieked, firing his sidearm wildly toward Marcus’s position. ""Kill him now!""
The remaining five contractors converged on the pillar, firing disciplined bursts of suppressed fire that pulverized the marble facing. But Marcus was already gone, ducking through a narrow utility duct known only to the facility’s architects.
While the contractors reloaded, Leo crawled out onto the crane hoist directly above the two-million-dollar prototype hypercar. Below him, Julian was frantically searching the vehicle's cockpit, looking for the digital flash drive containing the car's telemetry data and proprietary firmware.
""Where is it?"" Julian raged, tearing open the carbon glove compartment. ""Where are the files?!""
""Looking for these?"" a small voice called down.
Julian looked up.
Leo was sitting casually on the crane hook twenty feet above, dangling a small, titanium-cased USB drive between his grease-stained fingers.
""You little parasite!"" Julian yelled, raising his gun directly at the boy. ""Give me that drive, or I swear to God I'll splatter you across the ceiling!""
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""You always were bad at listening, Julian,"" Leo said softly. ""Listen to this.""
Leo dropped a heavy steel socket onto a brass pressure relief lever beside him.
