With a soft click, the electromagnetic plates aligned, but I did not engage them yet.

If I locked him in now, he would destroy the physical drives to hide his tracks.

I needed him caught with his hand on the terminal.

We reached the threshold of the basement stairs.

The air rising from the steps smelled of cold concrete and damp earth.

From deep below, the high-pitched hum of server fans vibrated through the floorboards.

I heard the dry click of a keyboard.

Vance began his descent, stepping lightly on the wooden treads.

I followed three steps behind him, holding my breath.

The basement was divided into two sections.

The first was a finished storage space with rows of canned goods and dry ingredients.

The second was the utility room, where my rack of backup drives glowed in the dark.

A blue glow washed over the concrete walls of the utility room.

Detective Harris stood in front of the metal rack, his back to us.

His tablet was connected to my primary hub by a thick black cable.

A progress bar on his screen was hovering at eighty-two percent.