Chapter 7 - The Line in the Sand
The warehouse went pitch black as Marcus cut the primary power lines, switching our tactical arrays to silent battery backups. The only light came from the dim green glow of our tactical monitors.
"We have three minutes before they breach the main bay doors," Marcus reported, checking the magazine of his rifle. He handed me a heavy tactical vest and a shotgun. "Aaron, I can hold the front corridor for maybe ten minutes, but they have numbers and heavy body armor. You need to get Tessa and Miles out through the old utility tunnels beneath the mill."
"No," I said, strapping the vest tightly across my chest. The fear that had consumed me for three years was completely gone, replaced by a cold, calculative rage. "We are done running from this monster. If we run tonight, we run for the rest of our lives. Miles deserves a mother. Tessa deserves her life back. We end this right here."
I turned to Tessa. "Can you transfer the decrypted files to a secure public server? A global broadcast feed?"
Tessa’s eyes lit up with a brilliant, dangerous spark. "If I link our server to the federal whistle-blower network through a secure VPN relay, I can blast this data directly to the FBI’s headquarters in Washington and every major news outlet simultaneously. But it takes time. The upload loop will take at least seven minutes to complete without interruption."
"Then you get seven minutes," I said, leaning down to press a deep, fierce kiss to her lips.
I knelt in front of Miles, who was sitting under the metal desk, holding a flashlight. "Miles, buddy. Do you remember what I told you when you were learning to ride your bike? When you fall down, what do we do?"
"We get back up, Dad," Miles whispered, his small jaw tightening with a brave, stubborn determination.
May you like
"That’s right," I said, hugging him tight. "Stay with your mother. No matter what you hear outside this room, don't move."
I stood up, racked the slide of the shotgun, and walked out into the dark, industrial corridors of the mill beside Marcus, ready to face the storm.
