The mobile command center was a tomb of high-tech anxiety. The fading, electric whine of the discharged Magnetic Pulse Generator still clawed at Minji's nerves. On the monitor, the essential lifeblood of their future, the evidence file 'Phoenix-Giga-Vault-Dump', crawled agonizingly: 35%... 40%... 45%...
"CEO, the data acquisition is proceeding, but we have multiple hostiles converging on the main server room. They are heavily armed, and we are still encumbered by stealth gear. We cannot hold this position," Tae-Hyun's voice was a flat, surgical incision into the tense silence. It was the voice of a man preparing for the worst, even as victory was within sight.
Minji watched the tactical screen, a cold knot forming in her stomach. Their immediate victory—the zero-second spike—had merely delayed the inevitable confrontation. The syndicate now knew the vault was compromised, and their priority had shifted brutally: eliminate the intruders and secure the evidence. The schematics showed four distinct red dots, armed mercenaries, cutting through the corridors with predatory speed.
"Jungkook, we need a distraction, and it needs to be geological," Minji stated, her eyes sweeping over the bunker schematics, her mind frantically calculating escape vectors. "The blast door is open, the smoke alarms are active, and they know where the target was. We need to shift their attention to a secondary, less critical zone, and fast. Something that suggests a generalized catastrophic failure."
Jungkook was already typing furiously, his fingers dancing across the holographic display. "Tae-Hyun, can you manually override the ventilation system's fire suppression in a different sector? Sector C, the maintenance tunnels—it leads away from the exit. Target the Halon dumps, not the water."
"Affirmative. Requires a dedicated two-second hack. Why Sector C, CEO?"
"It's a funnel, Tae-Hyun," Minji interjected, her voice tight with focused intensity. "The maintenance tunnels are the only rapid route to the power grid from their current positions. If the fire suppression system dumps Halon gas there, they will assume we are trying to disable the main power to destroy the physical vault, the old-fashioned way. It diverts their pursuit and forces them to wear protective gear, slowing them down considerably. They will choose to protect the hardware over chasing ghosts."
"Understood. Initiating hack sequence. Diverting three hostiles to Sector C. Remaining hostile locked onto the server room—he's almost through the door. Time Left on Download: 01:50."
The subsequent two minutes were an auditory torture. Minji heard a metallic hiss in the background, signaling the halon release, followed by Tae-Hyun's sharp intake of breath as the lone mercenary burst into the server room.
"Contact! Tech specialist maintaining the download connection! The other operative and I are engaging. Target is suppressed for now. But we can't keep him down. Time Left: 01:30."
Jungkook leaned over the console, his voice a low, urgent snarl. "Tae-Hyun, you must prioritize the data. Forget neutralizing him; disable his comms and run to the next extraction point. You are not paid to fight their rear guard!"
"Understood, CEO. Disabling comms... Done. We have a clear but narrow window. Download at 70%. Time Left: 01:00."
"Download complete! 100%," Minji announced, her voice cracking with relief. The hard drive status icon glowed a solid, victorious green. The evidence was secured. The lives of the men, however, were still hanging by a thread.
"Tae-Hyun, the data is ours. Mission priority shifts to Evasion. The planned exit—the East Service Hatch—is compromised by the lingering smoke from the blast door. Too slow!" Jungkook commanded, his focus shifting instantly from data security to personnel extraction. "Do you have a clear path to the main stairwell?"
"Negative. The stairwell is rigged, we spotted the pressure plates on the initial schematic scan. The tunnels are still too dangerous due to the halon. We need a faster ascent method. Requesting external hard-point assistance, CEO."
Minji's gaze slammed onto the building's complex exterior architectural plans. The old military facility had a high-capacity freight elevator shaft, large and structurally sound, located near the main server room. It was a relic, rarely used by the modern syndicate.
"The freight elevator shaft!" Minji exclaimed, grabbing a stylus and circling the relic structure on the screen. "Jungkook, their security is focused on the tunnels and the stairwell, the conventional routes. The freight shaft is a vertical blind spot! Tae-Hyun, can you breach the shaft wall near the server room? It's load-bearing, but the original blueprints show a pre-set access panel for maintenance—a weak point."
"The panel is accessible! We can use a small shaped charge to blow the rivets. But without a descent rope, it's a suicide jump. We are on Sub-level 2; the roof is a four-story drop."
Jungkook's voice was the sound of a CEO taking absolute command. "You won't jump. Minji, get me the external coordinates for that shaft now! I'm sending in the extraction team and the hardware—a high-power magnetic grapple."
Minji quickly relayed the precise GPS coordinates, calculated based on the facility's known geographical coordinates and the internal map's deviation factor. Her mind worked like a calculator, fusing the abstract knowledge of the plot with the concrete reality of physics.
Jungkook was already on a dedicated, encrypted line to their external extraction team—a separate group of highly trained ex-military specialists placed strategically miles away.
"Alpha Team, listen closely. You have a thirty-second window for deployment. We need a magnetic grappling line dropped precisely to these coordinates—do not deviate! The line must be load-bearing for four people and deployed now! Time starts when you launch!"
Minji watched the external cameras on the command center screen, her breathing shallow. A small, specialized drone—black and silent—launched from the concealed position in the nearby woods, moving with terrifying speed toward the facility's rooftop.
"Charge set! Detonating rivets in three… two… one!" Tae-Hyun reported.
A second, softer, more localized THUD sounded, followed by the rush of cold air and wind in the comms.
"Shaft breached! We are inside the cavity! Waiting for the drop! Hostiles are entering the server room now—they missed us by seconds!"
The final race was terrifyingly vertical. The sound of distant shouts and footsteps reached the command center, signaling the mercenaries realizing their quarry was gone. On the external screen, Minji watched the magnetic grappling line deploy, its claw swinging slightly as it sought its target.
"Got it! Securing the line! Ascending now! The others are following!"
The team was out of the room, out of the immediate danger, and on their way out of the building via the single path their brilliant strategist had carved for them.
Jungkook let out a profound sigh of relief, the tension draining visibly from his shoulders. He walked over to Minji, pulling her into a tight, desperate embrace.
"You saved them, Minji. Every man on that team. The distraction, the shaft, the coordinates—you saw the path when everyone else saw a dead end," he murmured into her hair. "You risked your life for the real world, and you won."
Minji returned the hug fiercely, burying her face in his jacket. "We created it, Jungkook. Together. I calculate, you execute. That is our ending." She pulled back, her eyes shining with unshed tears, not of fear, but of profound relief. "Now, we wait until they reach the surface and we get on that jet."