Chapter 22
I violently shoved the heavy,
dead machine off my chest,
gasping for air through my respirator mask as I scrambled back up to my feet.
Lily was waiting for me at the console,
her digital tablet held high in her shaking hand like a prize of pure gold.
The download is one hundred percent complete,
she yelled triumphantly,
and she quickly ripped the data drive from the master port and jammed it into her pocket.
The thermite countdown is at exactly forty-five seconds,
I warned her,
and we have absolutely no way out through the sealed blast doors.
She pointed to a massive,
revolving exhaust fan located at the very back of the server room ceiling,
its massive blades spinning slowly to vent the excess heat from the building.
If we jam the main gear drive,
we can climb through the ventilation shaft directly to the surface,
she suggested.
I grabbed a heavy steel crowbar from a nearby maintenance locker,
and I ran toward the massive exhaust fan structure with absolute,
desperate speed.
I forcefully jammed the thick metal bar directly into the main drive gears,
and the massive machine ground to a sudden,
violent halt with a deafening screech of tearing iron.
Climb up now,
I ordered Lily,
and I hoisted her up onto the maintenance platform so she could reach the open ductwork.
She scrambled into the dark,
narrow shaft just as the thermite charges on the main transformers detonated,
creating a series of blinding,
white-hot explosions that completely illuminated the gargantuan room.
A massive wave of pure,
intense heat washed over my back,
and the thousands of server racks began to explode in a chain reaction of electrical fire,
melting the advanced assassination algorithm into absolute nothingness.
I grabbed the edge of the ventilation duct and pulled myself inside,
crawling frantically through the narrow metal pipe right behind Lily,
as the entire underground bunker began to violently shake from the massive structural collapse.
The ceiling of the server room caved in with a final,
catastrophic roar,
sending millions of tons of concrete and dirt crashing down into the fiery pit below,
and creating a massive blast of compressed air that propelled us forward through the shaft.
We tumbled out of the ventilation exit,
crashing heavily onto the muddy ground of the old mining facility's outer courtyard,
completely surrounded by the freezing rain and the darkness of the mountain night.
We lay there in the mud for several minutes,
gasping for the fresh,
cold air,
and watching the thick,
black smoke pour from the shattered ventilation ruins behind us.
The algorithm is entirely dead,
Lily whispered,
her body shivering violently from the extreme cold and the massive emotional release.
We actually destroyed the beast,
she added,
looking up at the dark sky with tears of absolute relief welling in her eyes.
The mechanical heart of the threat was gone,
but as I looked down at the glowing data drive protruding from her pocket,
May you like
I knew that our long war was far from over,
and the real monsters were the human beings who had originally built it.
