Page 185 of Silent Target

“I’ll stay.”

41

CALEB

“I’ll stay.”

Mac’s words settle over the vault.

No one moves.

Victor’s men are breaking through the barricade behind us. The server purge continues. Evidence bags are stacked beside the narrow escape tunnel.

Mac stands in front of the terminal.

His hands still tremble.

His eyes don’t.

Rook steps toward him. “No.”

“The server has to remain connected.”

“Then we find another way.”

“There isn’t one.”

Fathom looks up from his tablet. “He’s right. If we disconnect before the download finishes, the purge resumes.”

The screen reads seventy-eight percent.

The timer reaches two minutes, thirty-two seconds.

Mac watches the numbers.

“I know how to reach the central control room. I can stop the purge there.”

“You don’t know if you’ll make it back,” I say.

He looks at me. “No.”

His voice doesn’t shake.

“I don’t.”

Evie presses the Chairman’s journal against her chest.

“What about the paper records?”

“They’ll survive if you get them out,” Fathom says. “But the financial transfers, communications, safe-house locations, and active-member files are digital. If the purge completes, they’re gone.”

The barricade shudders.

A crack opens through the concrete.

Victor’s voice reaches us from the other side.

“You cannot hide forever.”