Chapter 5 - BLOOD ON THE CONTRACT
"The diagnostic cable," I gasped, tearing open my canvas bag.
Tucked into the molded plastic head of the proprietary StrideCore interface cable was a micro-transponder, powered by an internal button-cell battery, glowing with a faint microscopic green diode. Victor Lang’s technician hadn't just run a diagnostic when he crouched by Owen's knee that afternoon—he had slipped a military-grade tracking bug into my kit.
"Alvarez!" I shouted, throwing the cable onto the concrete floor and smashing it to pieces under the heel of my steel-toed work boot.
"Too late, they've established a perimeter around the block!" Alvarez shouted, racking his shotgun and taking position beside the reinforced steel doorway. "Two vehicles at the front dock, one at the alley exit. They're shutting down our routes!"
Dr. Kane frantically began typing on his master terminal. "I'm pushing the entire unredacted trial archive, the original schematics, and the European settlement receipts to an off-site secure repository. It needs three minutes to complete the handshake with the federal server!"
"We don't have three minutes!" Alvarez warned.
The warehouse's frosted glass skylights shattered simultaneously. Two heavy tactical ropes dropped through the roof, followed instantly by four armed contractors in matte-black body armor, dropping onto the elevated catwalk above the workshop.
"Hands on your heads! Secure the hard drives!" the lead operative yelled, raising an assault rifle loaded with non-lethal heavy rubber batons and shock rounds.
Alvarez fired upward, blowing a chunk out of the catwalk railing and forcing the two lead men back into cover. "Down! Get under the heavy benches!"
I grabbed Owen, shielded his body with mine, and pulled him beneath the solid oak welding bench as ricochets and sparks rained down around us.
Dr. Kane refused to move. He stayed hunched over his keyboard, his fingers flying across the keys as the upload progress bar ticked forward: 62%... 71%... 83%...
A shock round struck Kane squarely in the shoulder. The force spun the elderly engineer out of his chair, sending him crashing to the floor. The contractor leaned over the railing, targeting the main server tower with a localized electromagnetic pulse device designed to fry solid-state drives instantly.
"Lauren!" Kane groaned from the floor, clutching his bleeding shoulder. "The physical master drive... under the workbench... the red Pelican case! Don't let them wipe it!"
I saw the case—a small, waterproof, indestructible red container tucked behind the oxygen tanks.
The upload bar hit 94% before a second operative dropped down from the catwalk directly in front of the server, swinging the butt of his weapon into the central processor unit. The screen shattered, the fans died, and the room was filled with the acrid smoke of crushed microchips.
The operative turned his helmet toward me. "Give up the case, Nurse Hayes. Mr. Lang has authorized whatever measures are necessary to recover proprietary property."
He stepped toward me, raising his weapon.
He didn't see Owen.
Owen, anchored by the flawless balance of my mechanical carbon brace, pushed off the ground with both legs, grabbed a heavy brass fire extinguisher mounted on the bench leg, and swung it with all the force of his nine-year-old body straight into the operative’s knee joint.
The blow landed with a solid CLANG against the man's armor, knocking him off balance.
"Don't touch my nurse!" Owen yelled.
The operative stumbled backward into the high-voltage testing rig. I lunged forward, grabbed the red Pelican case, and slammed the emergency power lever on the wall. A five-thousand-volt arc jumped from the testing leads to the operative's tactical vest, locking his muscles and dropping him instantly to the floor in a shower of blue sparks.
"Move! Out the rear service drain!" Alvarez roared, covering our flank as the remaining operators scrambled down from the catwalk.
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We dragged Dr. Kane between us, burst through the low steel hatch into the subterranean storm runoff tunnel beneath the Portsmouth docks, and plunged into the cold rushing water.
***
