Chapter 39 Brie
Brie
The Atlantic section security checkpoint appeared ahead, illuminated by the pulsing blue lights of the Code Blue. One of the three guards put up his hand. “All nonessential personnel are supposed to remain in their quarters.”
They were trained to deal with people like Lark, right? Some of the security team looked like this was just a job, but most of them had the same look in their eyes as Rav. The look that said they’d seen things. Done things.
Maybe they’ll notice something’s wrong and—
A piercing alarm suddenly shrieked through the room.
Red lights began flashing in the corridors, and an automated voice echoed from speakers all around us.
Different from the Code Blue earlier. “Attention all personnel: This is a Code Silver lockdown. Find secure locations immediately. This is not a drill.”
The lead guard looked at me with concern. He took two steps toward me, ushering me toward their break room. “You can duck in here until—”
His eyes shifted past me to Lark, and his concern vanished. All three guards reached for their weapons simultaneously.
“No!” I screamed.
Lark shoved me hard, the semi-automatic fire erupting before I hit the ground. I clamped my hands over my ears, but I couldn’t shut out the gunfire. Sobs wracked my chest. I couldn’t move. Couldn’t look.
This isn’t real, Brie. You’re asleep next to Will. He’s holding you. You’ll wake up soon, and he’ll kiss you and—
“Get up, girl.” Lark’s voice was barely audible over the alarm in the background and the looping automated message. When I didn’t budge, he grabbed my arm and hauled me to my feet. “Move, or you join them.”
Seven people dead. Seven people who’d been alive minutes ago, and now—
I stumbled, stepping around one body. I squeezed my eyes shut as Lark propelled me forward. I should have warned them earlier. Should have—
Should have what, Brie? Gotten yourself killed, too? Made him fire earlier?
The checkpoint’s X-ray scanner kept running, its belt moving endlessly with no one left to monitor it. My phone should have been going through if it weren’t back in the first break room.
But no one would care anymore.
Past the X-ray, we reached the mantrap. For a split second, I considered bolting through alone. How long did it take for the outer door to cycle? Three seconds? Four? Could I make a run for it, slam my badge against the reader, and dive through before he followed?
But what if the glass isn’t bulletproof, Brie? What if he shoots through it?
I could try. Sprint for the door. Hope the timing worked. Hope the glass held. Hope, hope, hope—too many variables I couldn’t control.
So we arrived together, and Lark stepped into the chamber beside me. One more thing I should have done, crumbling to nothing.
The server room’s chill hit me as we entered, just like when I’d been here with Claire. Like the last time Will had kissed me as an act. Before he kissed me for real. I wrapped my arms around myself, though the cold was nothing compared to the ice spreading through my veins.
The cooling systems hummed around us, but the Code Silver alarm continued to shriek, and red lights strobed across everything. I’d been excited to see this place earlier today.
Was it really only today?
Focus, Brie. You know this environment. Use that.
“The Orchid 815 server is this way,” I said, guiding him along the rows. We turned at cluster seven and continued past seven, seventeen, and twenty-seven.
As we approached cluster thirty-seven, I heard rapid footfalls somewhere nearby. No doubt technicians hurrying through the server rows, heading for the closest secure location. My chest tightened. They had no idea what was happening.
Should you scream? Try to warn them?
That would be suicide. Lark would kill me and then hunt them down.
The footsteps grew closer. Three techs rounded the corner into our row. Lark shoved me to the side again, knocking me into the rack door as his gun flew up, aimed at the group.
Two of them froze. The third turned and bolted.
“Run!” Lark shouted at the remaining two. “Now!”
They didn’t need to be told twice. They practically climbed over each other to bolt in the direction they’d come.
Lark lowered his weapon. “Not a threat.”
He only killed people with weapons? My stomach flipped from nausea to a surge of hope. Maybe if I stayed useful enough…
Except you’ve watched him murder seven people.
How long would he keep me alive?
Think, Brie, think!
The KVM terminal would be in rack one. The Orchid server was in rack fifteen—fourteen racks deeper into the cluster, almost thirty feet from the terminal. And the Meridian server right below it.
So close. Dad’s evidence would be right there.
Don’t be stupid, Brie.
But if I distracted Lark somehow, could I access both servers? Get what he needed and get what we needed.
If you can pull it off without getting killed.
We reached cluster fifty-seven, and I moved toward rack one. I tapped my card against the lock and opened the door, sliding out the KVM drawer to reveal the compact workstation inside.
“Is that Haddad’s server?” Lark asked.
“No, this is a KVM—keyboard, video, mouse. It’s a remote access terminal that provides console access to any server in this cluster without having to connect to an individual machine physically.”
Lark’s expression remained suspicious. “Show me the server.”
I walked him to rack fifteen and used my badge to open that door as well. Counting units from the bottom, I stopped at the tenth server. “That’s Orchid 815.”
He placed a hand on the sleek black unit with its blue status lights. “Where do you plug in?”
Don’t point out that he isn’t listening. “There’s no direct user interface on the hardware itself. Everything’s managed remotely through the KVM terminal. It’s more efficient this way, instead of carting a keyboard and monitor around—”
He waved me back to the terminal as he stood. “Leave this door open.”
“Okay.” I backed up, lifting my hands. Trying to show I wasn’t a threat, just like those technicians.
He followed me back to the first rack. I tapped my card on the scanner, and the login screen flashed, authenticated my white-level access, and the prompt I’d been so excited about popped up for me:
Please select target server: Rack: [ ] Server: [ ]
I typed “15” for the rack and “10” for the server. The connection established, displaying a Windows Server splash screen this time. Lark leaned over my shoulder. He smelled like salt, gunpowder, and blood.
He smelled like death.
“You’re looking for anything related to Greek Fire,” he said. “Chemical formulas, test results, manufacturing processes. Upload everything to secure-drop-h4x9k2m.onion, port 8080.”
A Tor address—a hidden service on the dark web. Of course. Remember that, Brie: secure-drop-h4x9k2m.onion, port 8080. If I survived this, I was going to track down every bastard connected to this operation, and that dark web address might be the key.
I began navigating the directory structure, running a search algorithm in one window, and doing the work manually in another. I also initiated a third search using a shell command designed to locate hidden folders.
But my mind was already somewhere else. On the server right below Orchid. Meridian. Dad’s evidence. And the fucking assholes from Fenix.
Lark was paying too close attention to me. But this is your only chance.
“They’ll be watching us,” I said. “If they detect unauthorized access from this terminal, they’ll cut the connection remotely.
You need to monitor the actual server. If the status light changes from blue to red, I have a three-second window to execute an override protocol.
But I need you to call it out immediately, or we lose everything. ”
It was complete bullshit, but it sounded technical enough to be believable.
Lark’s eyes narrowed. “And you need me to…?”
“Keep your eyes on that specific server light. Don’t look away. The override window is incredibly narrow.”
Please believe it. Please watch the server.
He stared at me for a long moment, then lifted his rifle. “Five minutes. Find what I need.”
“It takes as long as it takes.” My voice shook as I flailed my hand at the KVM. “I’ve got three different ways I’m searching for your information.”
“I thought you already broke into this server?” The muzzle inched closer to my chest.
My fingers returned to the keyboard, and I forced myself to look at the monitor in front of me. “I did, but I didn’t have enough time to find it. I need to continue searching for the information and upload it once I find it. This isn’t a movie. It takes time.”
His nostrils flared, but he lowered the gun and walked backward to rack fifteen. Thirty feet away.
Maybe I could run. But he’d chase me. And I couldn’t outrun a bullet.
So instead, I switched terminals.
I took a deep breath. You can do this. Rack fifteen, server nine. Come on, come on!
The Meridian server opened, showing me the Linux prompt. I navigated directly to the folder I’d found before—the one with references to Dad’s case. My brain had been churning over this for hours. I knew the files I needed. I knew where to send them.
First, the email confirming the fifty-thousand-dollar deposit to Joseph Reynolds’ account. Second, the shell company records. Names and financial trails that could prove he’d been framed. Then, everything.
I initiated the upload to my secure cloud server. The progress bar crept forward: ten percent, fifteen percent.
As the evidence made its way out, another idea sprang up.
My scorched-earth script—the one I’d written on the jet.
Thirty seconds to download from my server, another thirty to execute.
It would infect every system connected to this server—every computer, every phone, everything that tried to connect to it.
It would crawl through Fenix’s systems for three days and delete it all.
I could destroy Fenix’s digital operation.
Get as much as you can first.
Adding more folders to the upload, I called out, “Still blue?”
Twenty-five percent uploaded.
Thirty percent.
“Still blue.” But his voice was too close. He was coming back.
Shit. Fucking tunnel vision. I switched frantically back to the Orchid server, but the authentication process took precious seconds. The login screen was still loading when Lark appeared beside me.
“What are you doing?” His voice was deadly quiet.
The bile rose up my throat again. “The connection dropped. I’m logging—”
His hand cracked across my face like a whip. The force sent me sprawling, my head slamming against the metal floor. Stars exploded across my vision—white-hot pinpricks dancing with the strobing red emergency lights and the constant blue haze from the data center.
Pain radiated through my skull.
Seven dead men. Seven.
The taste of metal flooded my mouth. Everything spun.
He’s killed seven people today, Brie. Why would he even need you anymore? You already got him into the server.
“You were logged out,” he snarled, grabbing my hair in his fist. He yanked me upright, and fresh agony streaked through my scalp. My cheek throbbed with each pulse of my heart. “Why were you logged out?”
The gun barrel pressed against my chest. The red lights kept flashing, casting his face in hellish shadows.
He’s going to kill me. Right here. Right now.
“The system automatically logs out after inactivity periods,” I lied, my voice shaking. “It’s a security feature. I was running automatic searches. Let me get back in and find out—”
The gun dropped to its strap, and the knife appeared in his hand—the same one he’d used to kill his partner. He moved behind me, the blade hovering near my neck as I faced the terminal.
“Start the upload,” he said, his voice deadly calm. “One wrong move, and I’ll open your throat.”
“I need to install—” I hiccuped in tiny breaths. “Need to install—”
“What?”
“You can’t just upload like normal to a dark web site.
Please.” I stayed as still as possible while typing slowly into a web browser.
This part was all true. With my life literally on the line, it wasn’t the time for more lies.
“I need to install something first, and I honestly can’t do it while you’ve got a knife to my throat. ”
He pressed the blade harder against my skin. Against my will, my eyes shut, and all I could see was his partner’s life flowing out of him.
“Please,” I whispered. Just please.