Chapter 6 - The Storage Unit Raid And The Smoking Gun
The digital clock on the dashboard of my armored town car read 2:15 a.m. as we pulled into the subterranean parking garage of a secure industrial facility on the outskirts of the city. Marcus sat in the passenger seat, wincing as a private medic patched up the bullet graze on his shoulder.
'Cell Unit 409 is down this corridor,' Marcus whispered, pointing down the dimly lit concrete hallway lined with steel roll-up doors. 'Evelyn keeps her backup servers and physical paper archives here under a fake corporate identity.'
Behind us walked two of Miriam's heaviest security specialists, their faces impassive in the fluorescent glare. When we reached Unit 409, one of the specialists stepped forward with a portable electronic bypass tool. With a soft click, the heavy steel security lock disengaged, and the door rolled upward with a metallic rattle.
We stepped inside, flicking on the overhead lights. The unit was packed from floor to ceiling with filing cabinets, server racks, and cardboard boxes labeled with confidential corporate names.
'Find the primary server tower,' I ordered, pulling a pair of leather gloves over my hands to protect my healing burn. 'And grab every physical ledger stamped with Vale North Holdings.'
For over an hour, the room was filled with the frantic rustle of paper and the hum of electronics. Marcus feverishly tapped away at a portable terminal connected to the main server rack, downloading gigabytes of encrypted financial records, secret emails, and recorded phone calls between Evelyn and Daniel.
'Got it,' Marcus breathed, his eyes wide as a progress bar hit one hundred percent on his laptop screen. 'Every single illegal wire transfer, every extortion threat, every plan to legally incapacitate you—it's all right here. Timestamped and unalterable.'
Suddenly, a sharp, automated chime echoed from the hallway outside. A red warning light began flashing above the unit's door.
'We've been compromised,' one of the security specialists barked, drawing his firearm instantly. 'External security sensors just tripped at the main garage entrance. Someone is coming up the freight elevator.'
'Evelyn,' Marcus hissed, turning pale. 'She must have tracked my phone's emergency ping!'
'There's no time to pack everything,' I said calmly, grabbing a heavy silver hard drive containing the master archive off the table and slipping it into my bag. 'We take the emergency stairwell on the south side.'
As we burst through the heavy fire exit stairs, the sound of heavy footsteps echoed from the floor below. Shouts rang out through the concrete stairwell—unmistakable voices belonging to hired thugs sent by Evelyn.
'Move, move!' the security guard yelled, ushering us downward toward the subterranean delivery dock where our town car waited with its engine idling.
We burst out into the damp night air just as a pair of dark sedans blocked the exit ramp. Men in black tactical gear poured out of the vehicles, weapons raised.
Before they could fire, our security detail unleashed a precise suppressing volley, shattering the windshield of the lead sedan and forcing the attackers to scramble for cover behind concrete pillars.
May you like
'Get in the car, now!' shouted the lead driver.
I dove into the back seat of the town car just as the vehicle slammed into reverse, tearing backward through a secondary service gate and plunging into the safety of the empty highway. I clutched the silver hard drive tightly against my chest, staring out the rear window as the city lights blurred past. Evelyn thought she could bury me in her web of lies, but I now held the executioner's axe.
