Chapter 5 - The Warehouse Raid
The rain had slowed to a miserable drizzle by the time Julian’s armored Mercedes convoy pulled up behind a derelict shipping warehouse near the East River. The rusted corrugated metal siding creaked in the wind, and the windows were blackened with grime.
Julian’s head of security, a veteran named Vance, cut the engine and signaled the tactical team. Four operatives in matte-black gear stepped out into the puddles, weapons drawn with suppressors attached.
Julian reached for the door handle, but Hannah’s hand stopped him. She sat in the passenger seat, her expression resolute. "I'm not staying behind in the car while you walk into a trap."
Julian hesitated, then nodded. He drew a sleek, matte-black sidearm from a holster beneath his jacket—a weapon he hadn't carried since his corporate security days in London—and handed her a secure encrypted radio handset. "Stay behind me. If things go sideways, you run back to the vehicle."
They moved through a rusted side door that had been forced open. Inside, the warehouse smelled of damp concrete, old diesel, and ozone. Rows of server racks hummed loudly in the center of a makeshift command station, blinking with frantic blue and red LED lights.
At the center console sat a technician typing furiously, while two armed mercenaries stood guard near the back exit.
"Freeze!" Vance roared, stepping out from the shadows with his rifle raised.
The mercenaries scrambled for their weapons, but Julian’s tactical team moved with lethal efficiency. Within three seconds, both men were disarmed, zip-tied, and pinned against a concrete pillar.
The terrified technician threw his hands in the air, sliding away from the keyboard. "Don't shoot! I was just following orders! Mr. Conrad paid me ten grand to wipe the server cluster!"
Julian stepped up to the console, reading the terminal screen. The progress bar for the data purge was at ninety-four percent.
"Can you stop it?" Julian asked.
"I... I can try, but the override code is encrypted—"
Hannah stepped past Julian. She pushed the technician aside with surprising force, her fingers flying across the mechanical keyboard with practiced precision. Her years working as a high-level medical database administrator had given her advanced coding skills that few corporate hackers could anticipate.
"He's using a standard Blackthorne legacy encryption protocol," Hannah muttered under her breath, her eyes locked on the scrolling code. "Conrad was always lazy with his security keys."
She hit a final sequence of keys and slammed the enter button.
OVERRIDE SUCCESSFUL. SECURE DATA ARCHIVED.
The progress bar turned solid green. The off-site backups were locked down permanently.
Julian stared at her in astonishment, a proud smile breaking through his tense features. "Remind me never to get on your bad side."
Before Hannah could answer, a red laser dot flickered across the back of Julian’s jacket.
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"Julian! Down!" Hannah shrieked, tackling him to the concrete floor just as a deafening crack echoed through the cavernous warehouse.
A bullet slammed into a server rack directly behind them, sending a shower of sparks flying into the air.
