Page 122 of Twist of Fate

Hale swiped a keycard at a black reader beside a service door. The light blinked red once, then green. “Local system storage, internal security routing, and the building’s backup access.”

The lock released with a flat click. Hale hurried through the doorway, and Luke followed.

“Can you shut down the tracking system from the server room?”

“Yes.”

“How many ways into it?”

“One.”

“And how many access points between here and there?”

Hale hesitated. “Three, including this one.”

“Lock each one behind us.”

“I can’t initiate a full lockdown from here. The internal security controls are routed through the server room.”

The service door closed behind them with a heavy seal. It had no window and no visible handle beyond the emergency bar. It might delay someone unfamiliar with the building, but it could become a trap if the security system locked them on the wrong side.

“Then we assume every door behind us will slow them down but won’t stop them.”

“You saw what they did to my office. I’m not sure anything in this building will stop them.”

“Neither am I. Keep moving.”

Luke followed Hale deeper into the corridor. Ahead, the corridor bent left. The lighting changed, becoming colder and brighter, while fluorescent strips buzzed overhead in an uneven rhythm. The floor sloped downward, shallow enough that Luke felt the change more in his knees than saw it.

Hale rounded the bend and stopped so abruptly Luke nearly walked into him.

“What?”

Hale lifted one hand for silence.

For a moment, Luke heard nothing beyond the building itself—the hum inside the walls, the buzz of the lights, and the distant rush of air through the vents.

Then came a footstep.

Another followed.

Low voices carried through the corridors behind them, muffled by concrete and distance but drawing closer.

Luke looked back toward the service door. Three access points between them and the server room. None of them guaranteed to hold.

They were out of time.

Hale’s gaze cut toward a small black camera dome mounted beside a sprinkler head.

“Can you access the security feed?” Luke asked.

“Not from here.” Hale pulled out his phone, glanced at the screen, and shoved it back into his pocket. “No signal.”

A metallic impact echoed through the corridor behind them.

The service door had slowed the intruders for less than a minute. Muffled voices followed, then the sharper crackle of a radio.

“The private elevator stopped at the lowest sublevel.”