It descended with a low, grinding screech, sealing us inside.

The metallic thud of the shutter hitting the floor shook the entire room.

Outside, the muffled sound of shouting came through the thick walls.

“We are locked in,” Nathan said, wiping a bead of sweat from his forehead.

“But they will try to cut the power,” he added.

He walked quickly to the massive wooden desk in the corner of the suite.

Three large computer monitors flickered to life, bathing the room in a cold, white light.

“What are you doing?” I asked, walking over to him while keeping an eye on the girls.

“The surveillance logs,” Nathan said, his hands hovering over the mechanical keyboard.

“Julian and Vanessa have been erasing the server history from the basement terminal.”

“But Claire’s system archives everything in an encrypted vault up here.”

He clicked a series of icons, and a progress window appeared on the center screen.

*Accessing Encrypted Sub-Sector: 0%*

“It requires a physical decryption key to download,” Nathan muttered, looking around the desk.

“I thought I had the bypass code, but she changed the security protocols before she died.”