I pointed feebly to the electronic keypad lock on the wall beside him.

The wires had melted from the heat inside, locking the deadbolt in place.

Andrew looked around the smoke-filled corridor, his face pale and sweating.

He ran out of my line of sight for a second.

I gasped for air, but the black smoke filled my lungs, making me cough violently.

I protected my stomach with one hand and held the hard drive tight with the other.

“Andrew,” I whispered, though he could not hear me through the thick glass.

He returned with a heavy metal fire extinguisher in his arms.

He swung it back and smashed it against the reinforced glass.

A spiderweb of cracks rippled across the surface, but it did not shatter.

He swung it again, his muscles straining against his gray suit jacket.

On the third hit, the glass exploded inward in a shower of sharp fragments.

The sudden rush of fresh oxygen made the flames inside the lab roar louder.

Andrew reached through the broken frame, ignoring the jagged glass cutting his wrists.