Chapter 31 - The Transatlantic Echo
"The patent has already been granted in twelve non-extradition jurisdictions," Vance replied coldly, his finger tightening on the trocar against the helium tank. "And right now, the primary database is passing through the final encryption layer. In three minutes, the seed file will replicate across nine thousand dark-web nodes. The global syndicate will fund the research for the next century. My work will live forever."
Olivia looked past Vance, her eyes darting across the setup. Behind the server racks, a digital progress monitor flashed:
`GLOBAL MIRROR UPLOAD: 88% COMPLETE.`
"Mercer," Olivia whispered without turning her head. "The cooling lines."
Mercer glanced sideways, following her subtle gaze. The server towers weren't cooled by ordinary fans; they were tied directly into the cryogenic loop of the central cylinder Vance was threatening to breach.
"If the coolant pressure drops below forty PSI," Mercer murmured under his breath, "the server CPUs will undergo thermal runaway in less than twenty seconds."
"He thinks that tank is his shield," Olivia whispered back. "He doesn't realize it's his Achilles' heel."
Olivia took two deliberate steps forward, drawing Vance’s full attention. "You think you're untouchable, Dr. Vance. But you forgot one thing about Chicago Memorial."
Vance’s eyes narrowed. "And what is that, Nurse Bennett?"
"The modern PICU doesn't just share a foundation wall with this wing," Olivia said clearly, reaching into her pocket. "It shares the pneumatic tube system."
From her scrub pocket, Olivia pulled out a small, heavy brass cylinder—the old pneumatic canister she had pocketed from the maintenance closet hours before departing for Switzerland. Inside was the harmonic receiver chip she had pulled from Ethan's initial scalp biopsy.
"What are you doing with that?" Vance demanded, his composure slipping slightly.
"You programmed this chip to seek the strongest available carrier frequency," Olivia said, holding the metallic cylinder in her palm. "When we fired the MRI counter-pulse in the basement, Ethan didn't just reject the signal. His bio-scaffold inverted it."
May you like
Olivia looked at Agent Reynolds. "Shoot the overhead copper pipe above the third rack! NOT THE TANK!"
Reynolds didn't hesitate. He shifted his aim upward and fired two deafening shotgun blasts into the antique plumbing suspended from the ceiling.