Chapter 47 - The Cipher's Edge
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Blind in the pitch-black tunnel, I ripped the useless night-vision goggles off my face, relying entirely on the faint blue glow emanating from the quantum processor.
"Ben, cover the flanks!" I shouted, dropping to the damp ground just as another pulse wave scorched the air exactly where my head had been.
"I can't get a clear shot, he's using the server as a shield!" Ben yelled back, his gunfire echoing deafeningly in the enclosed space as he tried to pin the operative down.
I holstered my pistol and drew my combat knife. I needed to close the distance without destroying the data node. We needed the intel inside that machine.
I scrambled through the shallow, freezing water between the subway tracks, using the rusted metal pillars for cover. The operative fired another pulse blast at Ben's position, leaving his left side completely exposed for a fraction of a second.
I lunged.
I cleared the distance in two steps, driving my shoulder into the operative's chest. We crashed hard against the metal casing of the quantum processor. The operative was incredibly strong, throwing me off with a brutal elbow strike to my jaw. I tasted blood instantly.
He raised his pulse rifle, but I kicked his knee, forcing his aim toward the ceiling as the weapon discharged. I grabbed the barrel of the rifle, twisting violently, and drove the hilt of my combat knife directly into the weak point of his neck armor.
He slumped to the ground, dead.
I leaned against the glowing server, gasping for breath, wiping blood from my mouth.
"Are you okay?" Ben asked, rushing over and keeping his weapon raised at the dark tunnel ahead.
"I'm fine," I panted, pulling a specialized, encrypted hard drive from my tactical vest. "Let's get what we came for."
I plugged the drive into the quantum processor's physical port. "Natalie's extraction code is running. We have exactly sixty seconds before this thing realizes it's being hacked and purges its own memory."
The blue light of the server pulsed violently as the data transferred.
"Thirty seconds," Ben warned, checking his watch. "Lydia, look at the screen."
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I glanced at the small monitor attached to the server. It wasn't downloading financial data. It was downloading thousands of architectural blueprints.
"These are blueprints of the Louvre," I whispered, my blood running cold. "The Spheres aren't just hosting a gala. They are turning the museum into a fortress for Clara's birthday."
