Chapter 7 - THE ELEVATOR DROP
Instantly, the deafening alarm sirens of the Genesis Tower, which had been silent all morning, shrieked to life. The strobing lights shifted from blinding white to a solid, pulsing emergency red.
Every single television, computer monitor, and smart-screen in the entire building flickered.
The guard hesitated, distracted by the massive projector screen descending from the ceiling above them.
On the screen, David Vance’s face appeared, but it wasn't the live broadcast. It was the digital logs Marcus had compiled, overlaid with audio from the boardroom’s security cameras.
VANCE_DEVICE: Ventilation lockdown initiated. Halon gas release in 04:00. Do not let Target leave.
The audio boomed through the PA system: "Lock the doors! Do it now!" Vance's voice screamed.
The mercenaries looked at the screen, then at each other in confusion. The narrative was broken. The entire building, including the police outside and the investors in the lobby, were seeing the truth.
Marcus didn't wait for the guards to recover from their shock. He grabbed a heavy fire extinguisher from beneath the desk, pulled the pin, and threw it across the floor. He shot the nozzle with the high-powered laser pointer from his IT toolkit, blinding the guards, while the extinguisher spun wildly, spraying thick, blinding white foam everywhere.
Marcus sprinted through the foam, grabbing Julian by his uninjured arm. He hauled the bleeding billionaire to his feet.
"Let's go, let's go!" Marcus yelled.
They bolted out of the Marketing floor and into the main elevator bank. The digital displays above the doors were flashing error codes. Cipher was fighting back, trying to lock down the physical infrastructure.
Marcus pried open the elevator doors with sheer adrenaline. There was no car. Just an empty, gaping black shaft dropping seventy stories down.
"The maintenance ladder!" Marcus pointed to the steel rungs bolted to the concrete wall of the shaft.
Julian, clutching his bleeding shoulder, nodded grimly. He jumped forward, grabbing the rungs with his good arm. Marcus followed, pulling the heavy elevator doors shut behind them just as the mercenaries burst into the hallway, firing blindly into the foam.
They were in the dark, suspended hundreds of feet in the air, the wind howling up the shaft.
"Can you make it?" Marcus asked, looking down at Julian, whose breathing was ragged.
"Just climb, kid," Julian grunted, blood seeping through his white shirt.
They began to descend. But halfway down to the 60th floor, the massive steel elevator cables began to hum. The counterweights groaned.
Marcus looked up. High above them, the elevator car’s brakes disengaged. Cipher was overriding the safeties. He was dropping the elevator car directly on their heads.
"Climb faster!" Marcus screamed.
The massive steel box was plummeting toward them, picking up speed, the wind roaring like a freight train. They had seconds before they were crushed into paste.
Marcus looked desperately for an escape. Ten feet down, there was a heavy maintenance door.
"Jump for the door!" Marcus yelled.
They slid down the rungs, tearing the skin from their palms. Julian reached the ledge first, kicking the maintenance door open. He rolled inside.
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Marcus let go of the ladder and leaped for the doorway just as the multi-ton elevator car slammed past them in a blur of screeching metal, plunging into the abyss below. The shockwave blew Marcus through the doorway, sending him tumbling across the concrete floor of the utility level.
They lay in the dark, gasping for air, listening to the deafening crash of the elevator hitting the bottom of the shaft far below.
