CHAPTER 4: The Breach of the Iron Tower
CHAPTER 4: The Breach of the Iron Tower
To infiltrate Vanguard Biotech, Emma knew she couldn't rely on brute force. She needed a ghost.
At 2:00 AM, she contacted Julian Vance—the estranged, idealistic younger brother of Vanguard's CEO, who had severed ties with his family’s corrupt empire years ago to work as a public defense attorney. Meeting in a deserted diner near the docks, Emma showed Julian the data on the air-gapped laptop.
Julian stared at the screen, his face hardening with disgust. "My brother is a monster, Emma. I always knew he was cooking the books, but this... this is corporate terrorism. If this gets out, Vanguard will collapse, but Victor will burn the city down before he goes to prison. He has a private army."
"I don't want to fight his army, Julian," Emma said, her voice sharp as steel. "I want to use their own automated security against them. Sophia's notes say the decryption key can override the entire network if it’s inserted into the main frame on the 40th floor. I need your security bypass clearance from when you were a board member."
Julian reached into his pocket and pulled out a silver biometric keycard. "It still works for the maintenance elevator. But the building is on lockdown. If they catch you, you won't make it out alive."
"I'm not going alone," Emma said, looking toward the window where Leo was sleeping safely in the back of Julian's car under the watchful eye of a trusted friend. "I'm going to finish what my sister started."
An hour later, dressed in the dark uniform of a night-shift structural technician, Emma slipped through the loading bay of the towering Vanguard headquarters. The building was a monolith of black glass and chrome, humming with the artificial energy of a global empire.
Using Julian's keycard, she bypassed the biometric scanners in the service corridor and entered the central elevator shaft. The elevator climbed silently, the digital floor indicator ticking upward: 10... 20... 30...
Ding.
The doors opened on the 40th floor—the server core. The room was a massive labyrinth of glowing blue data towers, the air freezing cold to keep the processors from overheating. Emma pulled out the micro-data drive and rushed toward the primary terminal.
"I didn't think you'd be foolish enough to come here yourself, Ms. Blake."
May you like
The cold, arrogant voice echoed through the server room. Emma spun around. Victor Vance stood near the exit, flanked by the two men from the black SUV. In his hand, Victor held a tablet that showed a live camera feed of the warehouse where Leo had been hidden. A team of Vanguard operatives was already surrounding the building.
"You're too late, Emma," Victor sneered, stepping forward. "Your sister was a brilliant scientist, but she lacked the stomach for true progress. Hand over the decryption drive, and I might let you and the boy live in a comfortable cell together. Refuse, and... accidents happen in the shipping yards every day."
