Page 73 of Hollow Code
"I need more time," she said.
"Wynn, Scout, stay back. I’m going in with Coulter."
"I’m eighty-percent done." She took in a slow controlled breath, doing her best to ignore the outside chaos.
Gideon grabbed her chair and yanked it sideways. She almost screamed at him before the chunk of concrete from the ceiling hit the spot where her shoulder had been a half second earlier. Dust rained down. A crack had opened in the ceiling where the grenade had stressed the structure.
"Keep going," Gideon said. He stood over her now, scanning the ceiling, the walls, the door.
She repositioned and kept typing. Her hands shook. Adrenaline, rage and the absolute refusal to let these people take this from her surged through her veins She'd gotten inside ORACLE. She'd beaten the AI. She'd spoofed AEGIS. She was not leaving this building without a backdoor planted so deep that Isaac and Finch would need to burn the system to the ground to find it.
"Two down at the fence," Scout said. "But I can see the one inside the perimeter, and he’s forty meters from the door."
"Wynn, can you see him from your position?" Neve asked.
"Negative. I've repositioned behind the generator…wait, he’s moving."
Bang.
"I missed, but he’s going for the station door."
"I need about five minutes," Zadie said.
"You got it, but if he’s coming for the door, I don’t know how we’re going to get out," Gideon mumbled.
Her chair skated sideways. She grabbed the desk with both hands as the terminal station bucked underneath her and the monitor slammed flat against the surface. The server racks screamed, metal grinding on concrete, and a chunk of ceiling hit the floor three feet to her right, shattering into dust and gravel.
"Another grenade?" Gideon asked.
"Breaching charge," Coulter said. "You’re going to have to shoot your way out. We’ll cover as best we can, but we’re getting hit from all angles."
"Isaac knew we were coming," Gideon said.
He stood between her and the door with his feet planted and rifle raised.
"How much time do we have?" Gideon asked.
"Before breach," Coulter said. "Maybe two minutes."
Zadie swallowed. The code was nearly done. She typed the final dormancy sequence. The code that would make the backdoor sleep until someone with the right credentials woke it up. Her fingers flew so fast she couldn't track individual keystrokes anymore.
The door burst inward, and cold air smacked her skin.
She shifted her gaze and stared at a tall man in tactical gear filling the frame. Blood oozed from his shoulder. His eyes were wide and wild as he charged at Gideon.
Zadie reached for her sidearm.
Gideon fired first. Two rounds.
Zadie squeezed the trigger on her weapon.
But somewhere in the chaos, she lost count of how many shots she’d actually fired.
The soldier lunged forward, and Gideon dodged to the right. But the soldier didn’t go down as he twisted and crashed into Gideon.
"The backdoor," Gideon said. "Is it done?" He wrestled with the soldier in what wasn’t a fair fight, even though the man splattered blood everywhere, and Gideon seemed fine as he slammed his attacker against the back wall.
The pistol skidded across the concrete floor.
