Chapter 17 #2
"That’s too close." Gideon stood in front of Zadie as if that would protect her, but she appreciated the effort.
"I need more time," she said.
"Wynn, Scout, stay back. I’m going in with Coulter."
"I’m eighty-percent done." She took in a slow controlled breath, doing her best to ignore the outside chaos.
Gideon grabbed her chair and yanked it sideways. She almost screamed at him before the chunk of concrete from the ceiling hit the spot where her shoulder had been a half second earlier. Dust rained down. A crack had opened in the ceiling where the grenade had stressed the structure.
"Keep going," Gideon said. He stood over her now, scanning the ceiling, the walls, the door.
She repositioned and kept typing. Her hands shook.
Adrenaline, rage and the absolute refusal to let these people take this from her surged through her veins She'd gotten inside ORACLE.
She'd beaten the AI. She'd spoofed AEGIS.
She was not leaving this building without a backdoor planted so deep that Isaac and Finch would need to burn the system to the ground to find it.
"Two down at the fence," Scout said. "But I can see the one inside the perimeter, and he’s forty meters from the door."
"Wynn, can you see him from your position?" Neve asked.
"Negative. I've repositioned behind the generator…wait, he’s moving."
Bang.
"I missed, but he’s going for the station door."
"I need about five minutes," Zadie said.
"You got it, but if he’s coming for the door, I don’t know how we’re going to get out," Gideon mumbled.
Her chair skated sideways. She grabbed the desk with both hands as the terminal station bucked underneath her and the monitor slammed flat against the surface.
The server racks screamed, metal grinding on concrete, and a chunk of ceiling hit the floor three feet to her right, shattering into dust and gravel.
"Another grenade?" Gideon asked.
"Breaching charge," Coulter said. "You’re going to have to shoot your way out. We’ll cover as best we can, but we’re getting hit from all angles."
"Isaac knew we were coming," Gideon said.
He stood between her and the door with his feet planted and rifle raised.
"How much time do we have?" Gideon asked.
"Before breach," Coulter said. "Maybe two minutes."
Zadie swallowed. The code was nearly done. She typed the final dormancy sequence. The code that would make the backdoor sleep until someone with the right credentials woke it up. Her fingers flew so fast she couldn't track individual keystrokes anymore.
The door burst inward, and cold air smacked her skin.
She shifted her gaze and stared at a tall man in tactical gear filling the frame. Blood oozed from his shoulder. His eyes were wide and wild as he charged at Gideon.
Zadie reached for her sidearm.
Gideon fired first. Two rounds.
Zadie squeezed the trigger on her weapon.
But somewhere in the chaos, she lost count of how many shots she’d actually fired.
The soldier lunged forward, and Gideon dodged to the right. But the soldier didn’t go down as he twisted and crashed into Gideon.
"The backdoor," Gideon said. "Is it done?" He wrestled with the soldier in what wasn’t a fair fight, even though the man splattered blood everywhere, and Gideon seemed fine as he slammed his attacker against the back wall.
The pistol skidded across the concrete floor.
Zadie tapped the final keystroke, and the backdoor deployed.
She ripped the portable drive from the terminal, shoved it into her vest, and turned again.
The soldier flipped Gideon onto the floor and wrapped his fingers around his neck.
To avoid any possibility that her kill shot would go through the target and hit Gideon, she leaned forward, pressing her weapon into the enhanced soldier's side, just under his armpit beneath the body armor. She angled so it would penetrate deep into the body cavity and pulled the trigger, twice.
He sagged, and his hands loosened.
Gideon shoved the body sideways, gasping for air, and rolling onto his hands and knees on the concrete.
"It's done," she said into comms. "Backdoor is planted. Drive is secure."
Silence over comms but not outside. Gunfire tore through the compound.
Zadie pulled Gideon to his feet. His neck was red, and his breathing was ragged.
"Thank you," he said.
"Thank me later." She shoved Gideon's rifle into his hand and grabbed her sidearm and rifle. The portable drive pressed against her ribs inside her vest. Everything they'd fought for was on that drive, and her only job now was to get it out of this building.
Gideon stuffed the cables, laptop, and other accessories into his backpack before slinging it over his shoulder.
"Can anyone give me a visual on the hub station exit?" Zadie asked.
"What happened to the man that went inside?" Coulter asked. His breath was choppy, and his words were tight.
"Down."
"I have partial visual, but he was the only one I saw," Coulter said.
"But at least one other breached the perimeter," Scout added between gunshots. "Everyone’s under heavy fire."
"We gotta make a run for it," Gideon said. "Everyone should push toward the SxS’s now that we have what we came for."
"Copy that," Neve said.
They ran through the broken doorway. Her ribs shrieked. Her knee buckled on the second stride. She caught herself on a conduit pipe.
"You okay?" Gideon held her upright.
"I’m fine. We need to—"
Bang! Pop!
Live ammunition reverberated off the hub’s concrete walls and bounced throughout the valley.
She ducked right and Gideon crouched left.
A branch snapped.
She spun, rifle up.
A man casually emerged from the woods, as if on a leisurely walk, wearing tactical attire and carrying a handgun.
A moment later, before she could take a breath, he’d taken her weapon, pinning her against him with his gun to her stomach.
Gideon spun and raised his rifle.
"I’d put that down if I were you," Isaac said, shoving his weapon deeper into her side. "Unless you want me to kill her right here."