Chapter 6 - Through the Air Vents
BOOM!
A loud explosion rocked the vault as the laser cutter breached the top lock of the titanium door. Smoke began to pour into the room through the widening gap, smelling of scorched metal and chemicals.
18:40... 18:39... 18:38...
The air in the room was growing thin. My head felt light, and my chest throbbed with every shallow breath I took.
"Go, Ruby! Now!" Nathaniel commanded, his voice leaving no room for argument.
I wiped the tears from my cheeks, clutched the silver thumb drive tightly in my right hand, and scrambled across the floor toward the server racks in the corner. I squeezed behind the humming black towers and grabbed the edges of the metal air vent.
It was secured with four small screws, but they were rusted. Using the flat end of my hard metal lunchbox from my backpack, I wedged it under the frame and pulled with all my strength.
SNAP!
The rusted screws gave way, and the vent cover popped off, revealing a dark, dusty rectangular tunnel stretching into the darkness.
"Ruby, inside!" Nathaniel shouted over his shoulder as he took cover behind the heavy mahogany desk, leveling his weapon toward the melting titanium door.
I slid into the dusty metal tunnel on my stomach, pulling my patched backpack along behind me. The metal was cold and smelled of old dust and oil. It was narrow—so narrow my shoulders brushed against the sides with every inch I crawled.
Behind me, a terrifying crash shattered the air as the titanium door was finally kicked open.
"Clear the room!" a mercenary shouted.
"Where is the girl?!" Julian’s voice roared from the hallway. "Find her! She has his blood—she can't leave this room alive!"
Gunshots erupted inside the vault—deafening, terrifying booms that vibrated through the metal walls of the ventilation duct.
"Nathaniel!" I sobbed silently, keeping my mouth clamped shut so no sound would escape into the vents. I forced myself to keep moving, dragging my body forward through the darkness, inch by painful inch.
The air inside the vent was even thinner. My lungs burned like fire. My vision swam with dark spots as oxygen deprivation set in.
Just a little further, I told myself, hearing my mother's voice echoing in my head. Doing right matters most when nobody's watching.
After what felt like an eternity of crawling in the dark, I reached a second metal grate at the end of the tunnel.
I peeked through the slots.
I was looking down from the ceiling of the central server room. The room was dark, filled with towering rows of blinking blue and green server racks. Standing right in the middle of the room, guarding the main central server terminal, was one of Julian’s mercenaries.
He was holding an assault rifle, pacing back and forth, listening to his radio headset.
"Yeah, Julian's team breached the vault," the guard spoke into his microphone. "They're searching for the kid now. The old man is wounded, but he's alive."
My heart did a terrifying leap. Grandpa is alive! But he was hurt, and time was running out.
I looked at the digital clock mounted on the wall of the server room.
08:12... 08:11... 08:10...
Less than eight minutes before the oxygen ran out completely, or before Julian realized where I had gone.
I looked down at my backpack. Inside was my heavy metal lunchbox, my half-empty water bottle, and the heavy black leather wallet crammed with nine hundred dollars in cash.
I took a deep breath, grabbed my lunchbox, and aimed it right through the slots of the ceiling grate toward the far corner of the server room.
I pushed the grate with my feet. It popped open, and I dropped the heavy metal lunchbox down into a stack of empty cardboard boxes in the far dark corner.
CRASH!
The sound echoed through the high-ceilinged server room like a bomb.
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"Who's there?!" the mercenary barked, spinning around with his rifle raised. He slowly walked toward the noisy corner, his weapon aimed into the dark shadows behind the cardboard boxes.
The second his back was turned to me, I dropped down from the ceiling vent, landing silently on my hands and knees on the carpeted floor.
