Chapter 8 - Breaking the Grid
Outside, the faint, wailing echo of sirens began to cut through the heavy downpour.
Vance’s head snapped toward the window. “How? I jammed all primary frequencies!”
“You jammed the digital precinct network,” I said, pulling my personal secondary satellite locator beacon from my belt—a device independent of the precinct's wired and cellular infrastructure, which I had activated the moment the doors locked. “Emergency tactical response teams have been surrounding this block for the last twenty minutes.”
Vance reached down toward his wrist terminal, attempting to trigger a secondary system lock or escape protocol, but I stepped forward and closed the distance, sweeping his arm aside and pinning him against the concrete wall of the corridor. The wrist unit shattered against the stone, breaking his connection to the building’s automated systems.
With the central control terminal destroyed, the precinct’s fail-safe protocol initiated a hard reset.
Across the building, heavy pneumatic seals released with a series of loud, releasing gashes. The magnetic locks on the front lobby doors disengaged with a succession of heavy metallic thuds. The emergency amber lighting shut off, replaced once again by the hum of the overhead fluorescents.
The heavy oak doors of the lobby were thrown wide, and armed tactical officers poured into the building, their boot heels clicking loudly on the wet tile floor, accompanied by paramedics carrying emergency trauma kits.
I kept my hand on Vance’s shoulder until two officers moved in to place him in restraints and lead him out through the lobby into the waiting rain.
The paramedics quickly knelt beside Olivia and Emma, wrapping them both in thick thermal blankets and conducting a full medical evaluation. Olivia was conscious, resting her head against her sister’s shoulder as the medical team prepped them for transport to the pediatric trauma center.
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Before they wheeled the gurney out toward the open ambulance bay, Emma turned back to look at me. She reached down, touched the heel of her worn sneaker, and offered a tiny, exhausted smile.
I gave her a firm nod back as the rain outside slowly began to taper off, leaving the precinct quiet once more under the clearing night sky.
