Chapter 6 - The Siege of the WarehouseThe rusted side door of the warehouse buckled inward with a deafening screech of stressed iron.
Bang!
A tactical breaching charge blew the lock clean off, sending shards of metal spinning into the cavernous shadows. Three armed operatives in full riot gear, wearing night-vision goggles and carrying submachine guns, poured into the room through the smoke.
“Clear!” the lead operative barked into his shoulder radio.
Before the second operative could sweep his weapon toward the sedan, Maya raised the shotgun from behind the driver’s side door and fired. The concussive blast blew the operative backward off his feet, sending him crashing into a stack of empty steel drums.
“Contact! Sector four!” the lead operative shouted, returning fire with a rapid burst of suppressive fire that chewed holes through the car’s hood and shattered the windshield into a million glittering fragments.
Glass rained down over Alex as he crouched on the floorboards, desperately holding the auxiliary flash drive in place as the laptop screen flashed yellow.
Upload progress: 98%...
“Maya! Cover me!” Alex yelled over the deafening roar of gunfire.
Maya fired two more rounds, forcing the remaining two operatives to dive behind a concrete pillar for cover. But she was outgunned, and the ammunition belt across her chest was nearly empty.
“Alex, hit it! Hit the execute key!” Maya shouted, taking a bullet graze to her shoulder that sent her spinning back against the car door.
Alex didn't hesitate. He slammed his palm down onto the enter key.
Upload complete.
Instantly, across the entire warehouse, every emergency light, every security monitor, and every connected terminal lit up with a blinding strobe of white light. A synthesized automated voice echoed from the warehouse’s overhead PA system:
“System breach detected. Master ledger unlocked. Broadcasting to global regulatory nodes in 3... 2... 1...”
Outside, parked fifty yards away from the warehouse, Julian Vance sat in the back of a luxury limousine, watching the tactical feed on his tablet. His face turned the color of ash as his private banking accounts, offshore shell companies, and classified weapons manifests suddenly flashed across every major news network and financial terminal from New York to Tokyo.
“Shut it down!” Julian screamed at his driver, slamming his fist against the privacy glass. “Shut down the satellite relay!”
It was too late. The code Alex had written was self-replicating, decentralized, and completely immutable.
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Inside the warehouse, the two remaining tactical operatives froze as their tactical comms units screeched with feedback, before their helmets displayed a flashing federal warrant notification directly on their visor HUDs.
Sirens began to wail in the distance—not private security sirens, but dozens of federal law enforcement cruisers converging on the industrial park from every direction, their red and blue lights painting the night sky in brilliant strokes of justice.
