Chapter 7 - The Final Corridor
The stairwell of the Vanguard Capital tower was a sterile, labyrinthine descent of polished gray concrete and harsh fluorescent strip lighting.
Celeste and Ethan moved down the steps in tight, practiced coordination—Ethan leading with his weapon raised, scanning every corner and landing, while Celeste stayed close behind, her tablet clutched tightly in her hand like a shield.
“We’re on the twelfth floor,” Celeste whispered, glancing down at the building schematics displayed on her screen. “Marcus’s private executive suite and the primary server room are on the fortieth floor. But we don’t need to go all the way up.”
Ethan paused on the landing, lowering his weapon slightly to look back at her. “Why not?”
“Because Marcus isn’t in his office,” Celeste tapped the screen, bringing up a live feed from Vanguard’s internal security cameras that she had successfully hijacked three floors ago. “He’s holding an emergency board meeting in the secure subterranean briefing room on the subterranean second level, trying to manage the panic after I froze their liquidity accounts.”
A slow, grim smile spread across Ethan’s face. “Family reunions are always better in the basement.”
They bypassed the elevator banks entirely, taking the service maintenance stairs straight down into the secure subterranean levels of the skyscraper. The air grew noticeably cooler and heavier down here, smelling of ozone, heavy electrical transformers, and refined concrete.
As they reached the heavy biometric security door marked *SUB-LEVEL 2 - EXECUTIVE BRIEFING ROOM*, two armed guards dressed in polished corporate security uniforms stepped out from an alcove, their weapons instantly leveling toward the stairwell entrance.
“Halt! Identify yourselves—”
Before the guard could finish the sentence, Ethan moved with blinding, terrifying speed.
He didn't fire his weapon. Instead, he closed the distance in two massive strides, swept the first guard’s legs out from under him, and slammed the man’s head against the reinforced steel wall with a dull, echoing thud.
The second guard tried to raise his rifle, but Celeste didn't hesitate—she lunged forward, grabbed a heavy steel fire extinguisher from the wall bracket, and smashed it directly across the guard’s arm, sending his weapon clattering to the floor before Ethan delivered a swift, disabling strike to his jaw.
Both men slumped unconscious onto the polished linoleum floor.
Ethan looked at Celeste, raising an eyebrow in genuine astonishment. “Remind me to never play poker with you, Ms. Rowan.”
“Focus, Vance,” Celeste said coolly, stepping over the fallen guards and walking up to the massive, reinforced steel door of the briefing room. “Your brother is waiting.”
She pressed her hand against the digital control pad. The system flashed red, refusing to open.
“Locked from the inside,” Celeste muttered.
Ethan stepped up beside her, pulled a small, high-frequency electronic decryption device from his tactical pouch, and slapped it against the magnetic lock housing.
*BZZZZT-CLICK.*
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The heavy steel door hissed open, sliding smoothly back into the bulkhead walls.
***
