Chapter 12 - External Protocol
The sound that followed was not an alarm; it was a deep, bone-rattling pulse that emanated from the server racks lining the corridor. The cooling fans in every tower screamed to maximum RPM, creating a deafening, wind-tunnel roar throughout the bunker.
"What is that?" Elena demanded, her gun wavering as she stepped toward the console, scanning the scrolling green command lines. "Sterling is dead! Who authorized a remote extraction?"
Mark lunged. He didn't think; he moved on pure instinct. He clamped his right hand over the cylinder of the revolver, driving his weight into Elena's forearm and forcing the weapon upward.
BANG.
The gunshot blasted into the acoustic ceiling tiles, raining white plaster dust down upon them. Elena shrieked, clawing at Mark’s face with her free hand, her fingernails tearing bloody furrows across his cheek. But Mark didn't let go. He twisted her wrist until the heavy steel frame slipped from her fingers, clattering uselessly beneath the server racks.
He shoved her back against the terminal, pinning her by her shoulders. "Stop! Look at the monitors, Elena! Look!"
Elena struggled for a fraction of a second, then froze.
The security feeds displayed the street outside their suburban home. Four unmarked black Chevrolet Suburbans had just pulled up to their curb, blocking the driveway from both directions. Men in sterile dark tactical gear, carrying suppressed carbines and heavy mechanical breaching rams, were already exiting the vehicles in synchronized, terrifying precision. They weren't police. They carried no badges, no department patches—only a small, triangular silver insignia on their tactical vests.
Cadmus.
"They used the secondary isotope ping," Elena gasped, the fight instantly draining from her body, leaving her limp in Mark’s grip. "When you inserted the new core... it broadcast an activation beacon to the regional network. They didn't care about Sterling. They were just waiting for someone to stabilize the power so the data wouldn't corrupt during transit."
"What data?" Mark yelled over the roar of the server fans.
Elena looked toward the doorway. Lily was no longer standing there. She had walked over to Dr. Sterling’s terminal, her small hands resting flat against the glass surface of the primary monitor.
May you like
Her hazel eyes had completely dilated, the irises swallowed by deep, black pools.
"They aren't coming for the hard drives, Mark," Elena whispered, her voice choking on pure horror. "They're coming to harvest the receiver."
