Chapter 13 - Tower of Shadows
Rain lashed against the black glass exterior of Sterling Tower as midnight struck. Thunder masked the sound of the service elevator rising through the ventilation shaft from the subterranean subway tunnels.
Victor, Clara, and Marcus moved silently out of the false wall in the 40th-floor server vault. Julian was securely harnessed against Victor’s back in a tactical carry rig, wearing sound-dampening earmuffs to block out the terror of the operation.
The server room hummed with the high-pitched whine of thousands of cooling fans, blue and green LED lights casting eerie patterns across the sleek rows of server cabinets.
Marcus immediately plugged his field terminal into the primary server rack. "Initiating bypass. Victor, I need the master thumbprint."
Victor pressed his thumb against the biometric scanner. The screen blinked green: IDENTITY CONFIRMED: STERLING, V.
"Now Julian," Clara directed softly. Victor unstrapped the boy and placed his tiny thumb on the optical pad.
The console chimed, and a cascade of raw data began flooding Marcus's screen: shell bank accounts in Zurich, cargo manifests labeled 'industrial machinery' containing illegal arms shipments, and direct payoffs to municipal judges, police commissioners, and senators.
"Got it," Marcus whispered, his eyes widening at the scale of the corruption. "This isn't just Cross. This implicates half the city council."
"Download it to the flash drives and prep the public distribution upload," Victor commanded.
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Suddenly, the hum of the server fans died as the emergency power tripped. The entire room went pitch black, illuminated only by the faint red glow of backup emergency strips along the floor.
The heavy hydraulic doors of the server room slid open with a hiss.
