"Run!" Zulfa shouted at the top of his lungs.

Without wasting a fraction of a second, Zulfa grabbed Naya's hand and spun around, sprinting full speed down the third-floor corridor away from Malik, who stood near Mr. Hendra's lifeless body. The metallic cocking of an assault rifle echoed sharply behind them, followed by the first gunshot tearing through the plaster wall right beside their heads, sending a shower of stone splinters flying.

"Through the emergency stairs to the top floor!" Naya gasped, her breath heaving amidst the mounting panic.

They surged up the concrete emergency stairwell at full speed, taking two or three steps at a time. The heavy thud of Aethel Corp mercenaries' combat boots now echoed from below, pursuing them with a steady, lethal rhythm. They were no longer merely facing routine security; they were being hunted by cold-blooded execution machines.

Upon reaching the tenth floor—the topmost executive and administrative control floor of the Municipal Building—Zulfa slammed the heavy iron emergency door shut and barricaded it from the inside with a heavy emergency security iron bar.

They stood panting inside the sprawling, luxurious executive glass suite. A massive mahogany desk, elegant leather sofas, and a sweeping floor-to-ceiling glass wall showcasing the city skyline beneath a bruised crimson sky dominated the space. Yet, that luxury meant nothing against the mortal threat lurking just beyond the door.

"Zul... we're trapped!" Naya whispered in panic, pressing a hand against her chest as she leaned against the cold glass wall. "The emergency stairs below are locked from the outside. There's no other way out except jumping from the tenth floor!"

Zulfa didn't answer right away. He swept his gaze across the room with the sharp, calculated eye of an engineer, his brain spinning fast to engineer a solution in this claustrophobic nightmare. "Don't panic yet, Naya. Think. Are the computers in this room still linked to an external satellite network?"

Naya's eyes widened at the question. A realization hit her instantly. "The executive master computer... it's a dedicated terminal running on an emergency backup satellite channel! That network can't be severed by Aethel Corp as easily as cutting local cables!"

"Good!" Zulfa said quickly, shoving Naya toward the main executive desk. "Listen to me, Naya. Download and broadcast all the raw evidence, the Ley-Line energy siphoning documents, and the corporate incident logs across the public internet, social media networks, and national news stations right now! Make everyone in this city know the truth before they cut our server!"

Naya seated herself instantly in the executive swivel chair, her fingers dancing furiously across the mechanical keyboard. The massive computer monitor before her blazed to life, flashing lines of programming code and a colossal data transfer window.

"I'm hacking into the public emergency broadcast protocol... Uploading all documents now... Damn, their encryption is heavy, but I can break it in two minutes!"

Bang! Bang!

A violent impact slammed against the iron door at the far end of the room. The mercenaries had started battering the door open with a hydraulic crowbar. The iron hinges shrieked loudly, and the securing bolts began to pop out one by one.

"Zulfa! I don't have much time! They're going to breach the door in seconds!" Naya cried out in panic, cold sweat streaming down her temples as her data upload progress bar hit eighty percent.

"Keep typing, Naya! I'll handle that door!" Zulfa called back.

Zulfa sprinted toward the corner of the room housing the central building's HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning) main control panel. He ripped open the metal housing panel. Inside lay a network of thick copper pipes pumping high-pressure ammonia gas for upper-floor climate control.

Zulfa smiled coldly. His engineering instincts locked onto an improvised weapon. Using a large wrench from his belt, he forced the main ammonia pipe valve open to its maximum limit, then smashed the pressure-relief valve so the toxic gas would vent wildly straight toward the entrance.

"Zulfa, what are you doing?!" Naya asked anxiously, glancing back from her computer screen.

"Giving our uninvited guests a warm welcome," Zulfa replied swiftly, crossing an exposed electrical terminal wire directly across the path of the ammonia vapor stream to create a thermal-detonation trigger.

Clang!

The iron door finally blew completely off its frame. Three burly mercenaries in tactical black masks and raised rifles burst into the room.

"Don't move—!" the team leader barked.

Before they could squeeze their triggers, Zulfa yanked the emergency igniter switch wired to the terminal cable.

Boom!

The high-pressure ammonia pipe detonated near the threshold, instantly releasing a dense wave of blinding white fog that filled half the room in a heartbeat. The freezing ammonia gas created an immediate blinding and suffocating hazard for anyone breathing it in.

"Arghkh! What is this smoke?!" one of the mercenaries yelled, coughing violently as he batted at the empty air, his vision entirely wiped out by the thick white mist.

"Upload complete! One hundred percent sent to the public network!" Naya shrieked triumphantly from the desk, ripping the emergency flash drive from the computer.

"Good! Now get over here, fast!" Zulfa grabbed Naya's hand, yanking the girl toward the massive glass wall on the opposite side of the room.

Outside the tenth-floor glass window, a howling night storm raged beneath the crimson sky.

"Zul... how are we getting out?! This is the tenth floor!" Naya screamed in panic, spotting zero ledges outside.

Zulfa pointed toward the building's window-washing safety cable—a thick steel zipline cable running diagonally from the building's upper corner down to the roof of a lower public parking garage across the street.

"That way! Hold tight to my waist and don't open your eyes!" Zulfa commanded without a shred of hesitation.

Without wasting a millisecond, Zulfa grabbed an emergency iron carabiner hook from the wall maintenance safety kit, clipped it onto the zipline steel cable, and with one powerful kick, shattered the massive executive window.

Crash!

Glass shards rained into the night air. Amidst the billowing white ammonia fog and the angry shouts of mercenaries closing in through the haze, Zulfa leaped through the shattered window with Naya, rocketing down the steel zipline into the dark night of a dying city.