Chapter 10 - The Trap Sprung at Midnight
The heavy magnetic lock hummed with high voltage, sealing the vault door like the entrance to a bank vault. Inside the windowless room, only the faint green LEDs on their tactical gear cut through the darkness.
"They cut the main power grid," Marcus said, his flashlight beam sweeping over the reinforced steel door. "Magnetic seal has a battery backup. We can't blow it without collapsing the ventilation shaft on top of us."
Over the intercom, Vincent’s cruel laughter echoed. "In two hours, the tribunal begins, Emmet. By the time they find your bodies in that vault, I’ll be voted Chairman, and that little secretary of yours will be branded the traitor who helped you steal from the family."
The intercom clicked off with a hiss of static.
Noel felt the walls closing in, the air suddenly turning thin. "He’s going to let us suffocate in here while he takes the company."
Emmet walked over to her, grabbing both of her shoulders with firm, steady hands. His voice was calm, cutting through the rising panic. "Look at me, Noel. Take a breath."
She met his slate-gray eyes in the beam of the flashlight.
"We are not dying in this room," Emmet said with fierce conviction. "You built this archive. Think. Is there another way out?"
Noel closed her eyes, forcing her mind past the terror, visualizing the three-dimensional blueprint of the fourteenth floor she had memorized over three years of tireless work.
"The 1982 fire retrofits," she whispered suddenly, her eyes snapping open. "The city forced the building to install an emergency pressure relief conduit behind the microfilm storage bay on the north wall! It connects directly to the service elevator shaft!"
"Marcus, pry open the north panel!" Emmet commanded.
The security team leaped into action. Using heavy crowbars, they tore through the drywall and popped the steel maintenance grate. Behind it lay a narrow, vertical service shaft lined with iron rungs.
"It leads straight down to the sub-basement freight dock," Noel said, coughing slightly as dust billowed from the shaft.
"Marcus, lead the way," Emmet ordered. "Noel, you’re in the middle. I’m right behind you."
One by one, they squeezed into the narrow shaft, descending into the dark belly of the skyscraper. Noel climbed down rung by rung, the precious optical disc secured in her jacket pocket, feeling Emmet’s presence right below her, his hands guiding her footing whenever she slipped.
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When they reached the sub-basement, Marcus kicked open the lower vent. They spilled out into the concrete loading dock just as a team of Vincent’s armed enforcers moved to block the main exit.
"Ambush!" Marcus yelled, diving behind a concrete pillar as gunfire erupted across the dock.
