Hawk and Alex acted immediately to gain the upper hand. Catching both men by surprise, Hawk delivered a throat punch to the man closest to him. Alex delivered a hearty kick right between the legs of the man nearest to her, stunning him and sending him to the ground in pain. Hawk put both men down, two shots each, one center mass and the other in the head. Hawk hit the button that closed the doors and stepped back over the bodies.
“Okay,” Mia said, “is everything all right? I thought I heard some tussling in the background.”
“We’re fine, Mia,” Hawk said between clenched teeth. “Wanna get us outta here?”
“I thought you’d never ask,” she said.
Hawk and Alex stumbled as the elevator began a rapid descent ten floors below the surface. Using his foot, Hawk shoved aside one of the bodies of the men whose head kept bumping into him.
“Making you uncomfortable?” Alex asked as she cast a furtive glance at the body near Hawk’s feet.
He chuckled. “I’m not nearly as uncomfortable as that guy is right now.”
Alex wasn’t amused. “Let’s stay alert. We’re far from being out of the woods just yet.”
When the doors opened, Hawk and Alex stayed back, unsure if the men down there were aware of what was happening up on the surface. And based on the surroundings, Hawk wasn’t sure they would have a clue.
Hawk and Alex slid the bodies against the wall so they wouldn’t be visible when the doors parted. And seconds after they did, Hawk didn’t hear anything, just a low humming permeating throughout a vast room.
At ten floors below the surface, the space wasn’t just for keeping servers in a cool spot. The ceiling was ten meters high, comprising a space of about a hundred meters by fifty meters and housing long missiles and other weapons.
“What is this place?” Alex asked.
Hawk shook his head. “I don’t know. Whatever it is, it’s not good. But we can’t worry about that right now. We need to find that server room. Are you sure it’s down here?”
She nodded. “Mia?”
“I’m here.”
“Do you have the schematics up of this building?”
“I’m staring at them right now,” Mia said.
“Can you direct us to the server room from the elevators?”
“I’ll do my best.”
Mia started to give them directions, but a bullet whistling past Hawk’s head cut them short. He dove to the floor behind some crates, yanking Alex down with him.
“We can’t get in a long gunfight,” she said.
“I know,” Hawk said before he popped up and fired a shot toward the hostiles.
“By my best estimation, we’ve got about five minutes before those missiles are redirected toward some highly populated place.”
“What makes you think Sinclair isn’t doing anything other than a demonstration?”
“He doesn’t like to waste time or money. And a demonstration would be throwing away both.”
Hawk nodded. “Guess I better clear a path for us.”
He didn’t hesitate, rising and putting two shots in the man firing at them. As another guard rushed in to help, Hawk gunned him down too with a pair of bullets to the chest.
Hawk waited a moment and didn’t hear any movement. “I think we got them. Let’s move.”
They stayed low, hustling in the direction Mia had told them the server room was located. When they reached it, Hawk realized facial recognition was required to enter. He sprinted back to one of the guard’s bodies and dragged it over. Using the man’s key card, Hawk swiped it before propping the man’s head up in front of the access camera. The light at the bottom of the panel turned green, followed by a mechanical click.
Alex grabbed the handle and pulled down.
“Looks like we’re in,” she said as she put her shoulder into the door and pushed forward.
“All right,” Hawk said. “Mia, you’re up. What do we do next?”
“What does the room look like?” Mia asked.
Hawk’s eyes widened as he surveyed the area. “It just looks like rows and rows of bookshelves covered with computers to me.”
“Alex?”
Alex chuckled. “I doubt Hawk’s ever seen a computer room like this before. I’ll take over.”
“You need to find the terminal,” Mia said. “This isn’t a server farm. The mainframe is one giant computer.”
“So are we looking for a keyboard and a monitor?” Hawk asked as he hustled around the room.
“Yes, that will be the entry point to the system,” Mia said. “If you can patch me in there, I’ll be able to wreak havoc on their system.”
“I’m on it,” Alex said. “Hawk, you just watch the door.”
A shattering sound interrupted Hawk’s train of thought. The lone looking window glass splintered, leaving them more exposed than ever. He dove and instructed Alex to do the same. Shards of glass pricked his hands as he army crawled to the back wall and took up a position behind a server unit.
“Hawk!” Alex cried. “I’ve been hit.”
He sprang from his spot and darted over to Alex, who hadn’t moved. Her left arm was gushing with blood. Hawk ripped off the bottom part of his shirt and formed a makeshift tourniquet for her.
“You’re gonna be all right,” he said. “It looks like the bullet went all the way through.”
She gritted her teeth. “We’ve gotta finish this thing. If Sinclair directs those missiles at a city—”
“I’m on it,” he said as he handed her another gun and took the transmitter device from her. “Just in case you need extra protection.”
Alex winced in pain and slid to the floor, clutching her arm with her left hand while holding the weapon in her right.
“Mia, what do I need to do?” Hawk asked.
“Just put that transmitter near the terminal, and I should be able to hack it.”
“Roger that.”
Two more shots ripped through the room housing the mainframe.
“Hawk!” Alex cried. “They’re coming. Hurry.”
He found the terminal and placed the transmitter underneath the keyboard tray. “Okay, Mia. You should be good to go now.”
After
