“Just remember to slowly exhale as you ascend.”
Hassan combed through his brain for a moment to come up with an answer. “The air in our lungs will be expanding as we rise to the surface. Unless we release that pressure, we risk pulmonary embolism and death.”
“Bingo,” said Jonah. “Let’s not pop a lung if we don’t have to.”
Outside the chamber, Alexis shot a twitchy thumbs-up through the portal window, her reservations painted across her face.
“I suppose we should just get this over with,” said Hassan.
“Unless you want to stick around and snap each other with gym towels.”
Ignoring Jonah, Hassan gave the thumbs-up to Alexis. Air hissed and cold seawater rushed up from vents in the deck, flooding the chamber. Jonah and the doctor floated up to the top of the chamber and filled their lungs with one final breath.
Jonah ducked underneath the surface and released the outer hatch door. Both he and Hassan took hold of the waterproof bag and pushed themselves out of the chamber. The massive jetway floated above them, shadowing the submarine from the moonlight of the predawn hour. Jonah and Hassan rose through the thirty feet of water separating themselves from the surface, drawn upward by the buoyant bag, each exhaling a tiny trail of silver bubbles.
The bag broke the surface at the foot of a massive concrete pillar next to the floating aircraft runway. Jonah hefted the bag over his shoulder and dragged himself up a ladder onto the runway, Hassan close behind. The two dressed themselves in fatigues and pulled ballcaps low over their eyes and wet hair. Jonah drew two pistols from the bag — his pearl-handled .45 and Hassan’s Moroccan military-issue 9mm — checked them and handed the smaller to the doctor. They stood up and straightened their disguises. Jonah nodded, stuck a small radio into his ear and kicked the empty waterproof bag off the side of the runway and into the ocean. It quietly burbled and slipped beneath the surface with a trail of bubbles.
The two men casually walked towards a massive reinforced hangar door built into one the circular pylon holding the superstructure aloft. Jonah scanned the stolen security badge against a reader. The hangar doors slid open, revealing an immaculately clean white vault filled with rows of warm, humming computer servers.
“Security pass worked,” whispered Jonah, holding a finger to his earpiece. “Entering the vault.”
“Good,” crackled Alexis’s voice from the other end of the connection. “Vitaly has control of the hacked security feed. I’m watching your every move, anybody else is going to see a pre-recorded loop. Find the command and control terminal at the far end of the room.”
Jonah led the way to a computer console at the opposite side of the circular room, the doctor following closely behind. He sat down at the console and booted up the computer while Hassan stood guard, pistol in hand.
“We’re there,” said Jonah. “What now?”
“Take the memory drive out and plug it into the command terminal,” ordered Alexis. “Vitaly says it will mimic a scheduled software update and bypass the lockout protocols. When the island experiences the power-loss event, the updated programming will have Anconia’s servers dump to the whistleblower drop-box servers instead of the corporate remote site.”
Jonah drew a solid-state memory drive out of his pocket and plugged it into the terminal. The screen flashed, loading Vitaly’s hacked software update. Completing the process, the terminal automatically shut down and restarted with the new programming.
“Done,” said Jonah.
“Now we crash the power management server,” said Alexis. “Remember to get out before the barn doors fly off.”
“Easy enough,” said Jonah, getting up from his chair. “Hell, we could be in Oman by breakfast, catch the fallout on CNN from a swanky hotel room.”
“Don’t get cocky,” said Alexis. “But I’m definitely up for room service — if you’re buying. From a separate room. In a different hotel.”
“Which server are we looking for?” asked Jonah.
“I’m watching you over the cameras,” said Alexis. “I want you to go one row to your left — strike that, your right. Then down three servers. Yes, that’s the one.”
Jonah and Hassan looked at the blinking black server, then at each other. It seemed indistinguishable from every other identical unit.
“Are you certain?” said Hassan into the radio. “They may not have noticed the software update, but they will definitely notice this.”
“Plug in the second memory drive I gave you,” said Alexis over the radio.
Hassan and Jonah looked over the server, pushing and prodding at it.
“I don’t see a place to plug this in,” said Jonah.
“An off-switch would probably work just as well,” said Alexis. “Keep looking. Hold on — I’m getting activity. I see security personnel and mercenaries mobilizing. It’s disorganized, but something is definitely happening. They may be on to you.”
“How much time do we have?” demanded Hassan.
“I don’t know,” said Alexis. “Just hurry.”
The doctor frantically circled the matte-black server, feeling over the sides, the top, circling it trying to find a switch or a port, anything that would allow him access into the computer itself.
Hassan looked up, just in time to see Jonah run towards him with a fire axe raised high over his head. The doctor tripped over his own feet and fell back as Jonah yelled a war cry, swung the axe and buried the metal head into the server. Yanking the blade out of the blinking machine, Jonah swung again into the now-smoking face of the computer, smashing glass and sending plastic and metal shavings scattering across the clean white floor.
The doctor hopped to his feet, yanked a fire extinguisher off the wall and joined Jonah, bashing the computer server over and over again as the metal casing crumpled underneath the assault.
“Seriously?” shouted Alexis over the radio. “This is the solution? You guys are a couple of Neanderthals.”
“Did she… say something?” said Hassan, short of breath.
“She called us cave men.”
“I’ll have… you both… know,” wheezed Hassan between blows with the butt of the fire extinguisher. “I’m a… highly skilled… surgeon!”
The server made one last long, sorrowful grinding sound and expired. The floodlights around the clean room flickered and died. Dull, lifeless emergency lighting faded to life. The axe and fire extinguisher clattered as Jonah and Hassan dropped their blunt instruments onto the dark floor. The two men ran over to the main terminal computer just in time to see the download bar budge, the first few percentage points of progress as the massive data stream shot up into the dedicated satellite overhead. Vitaly’s software update was working — Anconia Island’s computer servers began to spill their secrets to activist organizations across the world.
“Shit, just lost video feed,” said Alexis over the radio. “Probably due to the power interruption. Nothing more you guys can do. Get out of there!”
Jonah and Hassan drew their pistols and sprinted towards the hangar door. As they drew close, the door opened on its own, the first rays of the dawn spilling through. Dark shapes moved on the other side — mercenaries. A hulking man stepped out from behind the door with an automatic rifle in hand. The massive figure fired, sending bullets ricocheting into the floor, inches from Jonah’s feet, driving him back into the room.
“Go to the backup escape. The ventilation shaft,” shouted Alexis through the radio. “Far side of the room! Now!”
Jonah fired his pearl-handled pistol twice over his shoulder as he and the doctor retreated, neither shot striking true. Behind them, Colonel Westmoreland’s bulky form stepped into the emergency interior lighting, radiant in his sadistic glory. He shot just below Jonah and Hassan’s ankles, ricocheting bullets off the deck and pushing the retreating intruders further into the server farm.