Chapter 20
We finally reached the massive reinforced doors of the primary server core room,
the heavy steel structure vibrating violently with the immense,
throbbing power of thousands of cooling fans working deep within the chamber.
Lily bypassed the main electronic lock with a simple,
highly efficient manual override code she had extracted from the upper junction,
and the heavy doors slowly slid open to reveal a truly staggering sight.
The room was absolutely gargantuan,
stretching out for hundreds of yards in every direction,
filled with towering racks of sleek,
black server blades that glowed with millions of blinking blue and green LED lights.
The sound was completely deafening,
a continuous,
furious roar of rushing air and mechanical hums that made the very air in our lungs vibrate.
This is the central nervous system of the entire assassination algorithm,
Lily stated,
her voice completely filled with a mixture of absolute awe and deep, profound terror.
It is currently processing millions of data points every single second,
predicting political movements,
tracking thousands of targets,
and organizing global hits automatically.
We need to plant the thermite charges directly onto the main power transformers,
I said,
and I pulled the heavy explosive blocks from my tactical web gear.
If we destroy the main transformers,
the entire facility will suffer a catastrophic power surge,
melting the server blades into useless lumps of slag.
Lily walked over to the primary control console in the center of the massive room,
plugging her tablet directly into the master data port to initialize a complete system purge.
I need to download the primary source code before we burn this place to the ground,
she explained,
because we need to know exactly who originally built this terrifying weapon and who paid for it.
A massive,
booming voice suddenly echoed through the room's internal public address system,
completely cutting through the deafening roar of the cooling fans with a cold,
robotic tone.
Unauthorized intrusion detected in the primary server core,
the automated voice announced,
and the master system has initiated a complete lock-down protocol,
sealing all emergency exits and activating the internal fire suppression system.
Heavy steel blast shutters began to slam down over the doors we had just entered,
cutting off our only known escape route and trapping us inside the humming machine room.
Worse,
a thick,
cloudy white gas began to hiss violently from vents located along the ceiling,
rapidly filling the massive room with a suffocating,
highly toxic chemical mixture.
It's Halon gas,
Lily choked out,
her eyes instantly watering as the chemical began to rapidly displace the oxygen in the room.
The system is trying to smother us to protect the data infrastructure from the risk of fire.
I quickly pulled two compact emergency oxygen masks from my tactical pack,
strapping one firmly over Lily's face before securing the second one over my own mouth.
How long until the data download is fully complete,
I asked through the plastic respirator mask,
my voice sounding strange and muffled in the enclosed breathing circuit.
The progress bar is only at forty-five percent,
she yelled back,
pointing to the glowing screen where the data packets were transferring at an agonizingly slow pace.
The algorithm is actively fighting my intrusion,
deploying massive digital firewalls to completely block the download sequence.
Then I will give you every single second I possibly can,
May you like
I vowed fiercely,
and I ran toward the rear of the room to plant the final thermite charges onto the main power lines.
