41. Caleb
CALEB
“I’ll stay.”
Mac’s words settle over the vault.
No one moves.
Victor’s men are breaking through the barricade behind us. The server purge continues. Evidence bags are stacked beside the narrow escape tunnel.
Mac stands in front of the terminal.
His hands still tremble.
His eyes don’t.
Rook steps toward him. “No.”
“The server has to remain connected.”
“Then we find another way.”
“There isn’t one.”
Fathom looks up from his tablet. “He’s right. If we disconnect before the download finishes, the purge resumes.”
The screen reads seventy-eight percent.
The timer reaches two minutes, thirty-two seconds.
Mac watches the numbers.
“I know how to reach the central control room. I can stop the purge there.”
“You don’t know if you’ll make it back,” I say.
He looks at me. “No.”
His voice doesn’t shake.
“I don’t.”
Evie presses the Chairman’s journal against her chest.
“What about the paper records?”
“They’ll survive if you get them out,” Fathom says. “But the financial transfers, communications, safe-house locations, and active-member files are digital. If the purge completes, they’re gone.”
The barricade shudders.
A crack opens through the concrete.
Victor’s voice reaches us from the other side.
“You cannot hide forever.”
Cobra peers through a gap.
“I have good news.”
Falcon adjusts the sling supporting his wounded arm. “You found pizza?”
“No.”
“Then what’s the bad news?”
“Victor brought most of his remaining friends.”
Gunfire erupts outside the vault.
Not from Victor’s position.
Farther back.
Different rifles.
Different rhythm.
Shark tilts his head.
“That isn’t the Inner Guard.”
An explosion rolls through the corridor.
Our radios crackle.
“Rook…”
Static consumes the rest.
Rook raises his radio. “Say again.”
“…inside the mountain…”
Maverick.
A second voice cuts through the interference.
Rogue.
“We found the drainage entrance. Following the trail of unconscious men and Cobra’s explosives.”
Cobra smiles. “I knew they liked me.”
Then Reef joins the channel.
“We’re three corridors out. Mark your position.”
Fathom transmits a short-range pulse before the signal disappears.
Rook looks at him.
“How did they find us?”
“I sent a data packet with the bunker schematics before the internal system jammed communications.”
“When?”
“Before we entered the vault.”
Cobra shakes his head. “Show-off.”
Fathom points at the screen. “Eighty-six percent.”
Victor’s attention shifts toward the gunfire behind his position.
Only for a second.
It’s enough.
Rook sees it.
“We have one chance.”
He points toward the escape tunnel.
“Maverick’s team takes the evidence out as soon as they reach us.”
Falcon starts to object.
Rook stops him.
“You’re staying with Shadow Division. We still need your rifle.”
Falcon nods.
“Shark, cover Fathom. Cobra, prepare to break the server connection the second the download finishes.”
Then Rook faces Mac.
“You’re taking us to the control room.”
Mac stares at him. “You still trust me?”
“I trust the man standing in front of me.”
Mac lowers his face.
His shoulders jerk once.
When he lifts his head again, tears shine in his eyes.
He doesn’t explain them.
He doesn’t have to.
Rook grips the back of his neck.
“You came back. Make it count.”
Mac nods.
The download reaches ninety-four percent.
The barricade explodes inward.
Concrete and steel fill the air.
Victor steps through the breach, rifle raised. His armor is blackened and one arm hangs stiffly from Evie’s bullet.
He looks directly at Mac.
“No more running.”
Mac moves away from the terminal.
“No.”
His voice carries through the vault.
“No more hiding.”
Fathom calls out.
“One hundred percent!”
Cobra rips the data cable free.
The evidence pack lights turn green.
“Move!” Rook orders.
Mac runs toward a narrow service corridor behind the vault cabinets.
We follow.
The purge timer reaches one minute, forty-nine seconds.
Behind us, Victor enters the vault.
He isn’t trying to kill us now.
He’s trying to reach the terminal and erase everything we just stole.