CHAPTER 57
CHAPTER 57 — The Falling Empire
"Ernesto!" her mother gasped, her flawless composure shattering as the alarm klaxons inside the bunker began to wail. A bright crimson light replaced the emerald glow of the servers.
SYSTEM INTEGRITY COMPROMISED. AUTOMATIC PURGE PROTOCOL INITIATED. TIME TO TOTAL DATA LIQUIDATION: 05:00 MINUTES.
"Go, Valeria..." Ernesto choked out, blood spilling past his lips as he looked up at his daughter one last time. "Don't let them... own you."
The server towers began to shut down one by one, the soft hum of the data dying into a terrifying silence. The digital wealth of the Salgado family was evaporating in real-time.
Her mother ran to the terminal, her hands flying across the auxiliary keyboard in a desperate attempt to halt the purge. "No! No! Thirty years of work! Valeria, use the key! Save it!"
Valeria looked at her father’s dying eyes, then at her mother’s manic desperation. She didn't feel fear. She didn't feel anger. She felt an immense, weightless clarity.
She walked to the terminal. She picked up the antique brass key.
Her mother smiled, a frantic, triumphant expression. "Yes! Insert it! Scan your hand!"
Valeria looked her mother dead in the eye.
May you like
"No," Valeria said.
She turned and threw the antique brass key directly into the exposed, sparking electrical main beneath her father's severed server rack. A violent, blue electrical arc erupted, instantly melting the brass into a useless lump of slag. The biometric screen went black.
