Reed didn’t ask for details. His brothers knew what was at stake, and they knew how to handle themselves. Whatever methods they used to remove those guards from the equation, Reed trusted their judgment.
The maintenance panel came free, revealing a dark shaft that descended into blackness. Reed pulled a compact flashlight from his pocket and swept the beam downward, mapping the handholds and calculating the drop.
Twenty feet, maybe twenty-five. Manageable.
He lowered himself into the shaft, using the metal rungs welded to the interior wall to control his descent. The air grew cooler as he went deeper, carrying the hum of machinery and the distant echo of shouting voices.
“Hostiles are getting agitated,” Terrel reported. “Looks like they’ve swept the server room and came up empty. They’re expanding their search pattern.”
She’s still hidden,Reed thought.She’s still safe.
His feet hit solid ground, and he found himself in a mechanical room filled with HVAC equipment and electrical panels. The server room should be on the other side of the east wall—he could hear the muffled sound of voices through the concrete.
“Walker, status?”
“Stairwell is clear.” Walker’s voice was flat, professional. “Two hostiles down. We’re moving to the basement level now.”
“James?”
“Right behind him. Took a graze to the shoulder, but I’m functional.”
Reed’s jaw tightened. His brother was hurt, but James was still moving, still fighting. That was all that mattered right now.
He approached the wall separating him from the server room, running his hands along the surface until he found what he was looking for—an access panel for the cable conduits that connected the mechanical systems to the servers. It was small, barely two feet square, but Reed had squeezed through tighter spaces during his SEAL days.
“Elena,” he said quietly into his comm. “I’m adjacent to your position. East wall. Can you hear me?”
Static. Then, barely audible: “Reed?”
Relief flooded through him so intensely that his knees nearly buckled. “We get you out.”
“We need to get Webb,” she said.
“No, new plan, we'll get you out. I’m coming through the wall. East side, near the floor. Be ready to move.”
“There are guards,” Elena whispered. “They swept the room but they’re still in the corridor. I can hear them.”
“How many?”
“I counted five. Maybe six.”
Reed did the math. Six hostiles in the corridor, plus however many were still searching other parts of the basement. Walker and James were en route, but they’d be coming from the opposite direction. If Reed could get Elena out through the mechanical room, they might be able to avoid the main search party entirely.
“Terrel, I need a distraction,” Reed said. “Something to pull those guards away from the server room corridor.”
“On it.” Terrel’s keyboard clattered in the background. “I’m triggering a fire alarm in the east wing. That should draw some of them toward the surface.”
Seconds later, a piercing alarm began to wail somewhere above them. Reed heard shouting, the sound of running footsteps, the organized chaos of security personnel responding to a new threat.
“Two hostiles moving toward the stairs,” Terrel reported. “Four remaining in your immediate vicinity.”
Four against one. Not great odds, but Reed had faced worse.
He worked the access panel free and peered into the server room. Banks of equipment hummed in the dim emergency lighting, their indicator lights blinking in steady rhythms. He couldn’t see Elena from this angle, but he knew she was in there somewhere, pressed into the shadows, waiting for him.
“Elena, I’m coming through. Stay hidden until I give the all-clear.”
Reed squeezed through the opening, his shoulders scraping against the metal edges as he forced his body through the narrow gap. He emerged behind a server rack, taking a moment to orient himself before moving deeper into the room.
