Chapter 14 - Fire and Glass.
Julian lunged forward in a desperate, final attempt to disarm me.
My finger squeezed the trigger, the deafening gunshot ringing out in the confined space.
Julian fell back, clutching his shoulder as blood spurted between his fingers.
I hadn't aimed for his head; I needed him alive just a little longer.
I dragged him by his collar toward the biometric safe in the corner of the room.
"Open it," I commanded, pressing his bloody hand onto the scanner.
The safe clicked open, revealing a black encrypted hard drive.
I snatched the drive, securing it in the tactical pouch on my vest.
Suddenly, an alarm blared, and the smell of thick smoke filtered through the ventilation system.
"My men set the building on fire," Julian laughed hysterically, spitting blood onto the floor.
"If I can't have the ledger, no one can!"
The panic room was rapidly heating up, the steel walls acting like an oven.
I noticed a small emergency explosive charge meant for blowing the reinforced glass in case of a lockdown.
I armed the charge on the window, grabbing a fire blanket from the wall.
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"See you in hell, Julian," I said, hitting the detonator.
The explosion shattered the glass, sucking the smoke and debris out into the night air.
