Chapter 6 - The Mainframe Upload
The server room was massive, filled with towering black racks of high-speed servers glowing with thousands of blue and green LED lights. The air was frigid, cooled by giant industrial air ducts humming overhead.
I dragged Evelyn to a soft office chair near the central terminal desk, then rushed to the primary control console.
The screen displayed a high-level administrative prompt: AEGIS GLOBAL NET - DATA PURGE OR EXTERNAL SYNC?
I plugged the external drive from the briefcase into the USB port, opening the black ledger on the desk beside the keyboard. Page by page, I began scanning the documents into the terminal, watching the progress bar tick upward: 15%... 32%... 48%...
Outside the heavy vault door, a muffled electronic voice echoed through the intercom system.
"Mr. Miller," Harrison Vance’s voice sounded distorted through the speaker. "You think hiding behind four inches of tempered steel will save you? I have a thermal lance team arriving in ten minutes. They will cut through that door like hot butter."
"Keep talking, Vance!" I yelled back, watching the progress bar reach 65%. "The FBI is receiving every patient name, every forged death certificate, and every video file stored on your mainframe!"
A long pause hung on the line, followed by a dark, chilling laugh from Vance.
"The FBI?" Vance snickered. "Who do you think authorized Project Lazarus, Mark? Who do you think provides our federal exemption waivers? You're playing a game you don't understand. Aegis is the government."
My heart sank into my stomach. The progress bar hit 82%.
Suddenly, the secondary terminal screen on my left flashed red. A live camera feed popped up.
It showed the parking garage on Level 3.
Two guards were dragging Sarah out of our car, pulling her toward a black medical van with reinforced doors. She was fighting violently, screaming my name, but one of the guards raised a syringe, pressing it into her neck.
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"Sarah!" I screamed at the screen.
"You have three minutes, Mark," Vance’s voice purred over the intercom. "Step out of the vault with the ledger, or your wife enters Phase IV testing tonight."
