talien
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The Fortress: Part 5 – The Firewall
Caprice ran down the steps past the others. Drug dealers and cops were firing on each other with abandon. Sarah had thankfully been forgotten in the conflict. He only hoped she had climbed down one of the drainage pipes off the roof.
Caprice paused as he caught sight of Keys standing near a server room.
"Keys!" shouted Machete, blade at the ready. "Burn it!"
Keys nodded and came out of a maintenance closet with two bright red cans of gasoline. He undid the stoppers on both.
Caprice grabbed Hammer by the arm before he lost track of him in the smoke. "They're torching the servers!"
Keys kicked open the server room door. Several programmers, unaware of what was going on outside, looked up in shock as gasoline was poured over them. Keys made no distinction between program and programmer, spraying the contents of one of the cans of gasoline everywhere.
He drew a lighter and lifted one thumb to ignite it.
Hammer sprayed Keys with the other can of gasoline. "I wouldn't do that if I were--"
The shock of gas hitting Keys made him involuntarily twitch, and he set flicked the lighter. Flames consumed him immediately. Screaming and wailing, Keys flailed backwards, striking one of the computers. The flames roared across the top of the monitor. Electronics popped and crackled.
“Damn it!” shouted Hammer. He hadn’t intended to set Keys on fire, just discourage him. "We need to get the data off those systems!"
Caprice nodded, no longer the swaggering Snow Dog persona. He slipped into the chair furthers from the flames. He tried to plug in his cistron to the USB port, but Keys was far too paranoid to allow any form of access. It was dummy terminals.
That meant he had to hack it manually. He started typing.
The first security level was breached as the flames roared behind him. Hammer evacuated the other programmers, in some cases throwing them bodily out of the room into the hallway.
The smoke and fire was sucking the air out of the room. Caprice coughed and wheezed, but he kept typing. He breached the second level of security.
Flames roared closer. The monitors were popping like water balloons at a carnival, one by one, each a little closer.
He got through to the heart of Fortaleza. There was no way to remove media off mainframe. Images flashed by of the name and location of Machete’s dealers. Caprice's eyes were watering so badly that he couldn't make it out. He held up his cistron and took pictures of everything.
Hammer threw two computer tables down, one to either side of the doorway, which provided a temporary firebreak and a path out. Caprice crawled his way out of the doorway...
Hammer helped him to his feet. Jim-Bean skidded to a halt in front of the door, blood staining his shirt where the bullet had entered and exited his shoulder.
"There's cops the other way. Go back up to the roof!"
Caprice wiped soot from his face as the flames roared behind him. “I hacked it,” he said, gasping for air. “I hacked it in time.”
Jim-Bean gave him a lopsided smile. "Huh," he said as he resumed jogging towards the stairwell. "Now that’s a serious firewall."
Caprice shook his head and followed after him.
Caprice ran down the steps past the others. Drug dealers and cops were firing on each other with abandon. Sarah had thankfully been forgotten in the conflict. He only hoped she had climbed down one of the drainage pipes off the roof.
Caprice paused as he caught sight of Keys standing near a server room.
"Keys!" shouted Machete, blade at the ready. "Burn it!"
Keys nodded and came out of a maintenance closet with two bright red cans of gasoline. He undid the stoppers on both.
Caprice grabbed Hammer by the arm before he lost track of him in the smoke. "They're torching the servers!"
Keys kicked open the server room door. Several programmers, unaware of what was going on outside, looked up in shock as gasoline was poured over them. Keys made no distinction between program and programmer, spraying the contents of one of the cans of gasoline everywhere.
He drew a lighter and lifted one thumb to ignite it.
Hammer sprayed Keys with the other can of gasoline. "I wouldn't do that if I were--"
The shock of gas hitting Keys made him involuntarily twitch, and he set flicked the lighter. Flames consumed him immediately. Screaming and wailing, Keys flailed backwards, striking one of the computers. The flames roared across the top of the monitor. Electronics popped and crackled.
“Damn it!” shouted Hammer. He hadn’t intended to set Keys on fire, just discourage him. "We need to get the data off those systems!"
Caprice nodded, no longer the swaggering Snow Dog persona. He slipped into the chair furthers from the flames. He tried to plug in his cistron to the USB port, but Keys was far too paranoid to allow any form of access. It was dummy terminals.
That meant he had to hack it manually. He started typing.
The first security level was breached as the flames roared behind him. Hammer evacuated the other programmers, in some cases throwing them bodily out of the room into the hallway.
The smoke and fire was sucking the air out of the room. Caprice coughed and wheezed, but he kept typing. He breached the second level of security.
Flames roared closer. The monitors were popping like water balloons at a carnival, one by one, each a little closer.
He got through to the heart of Fortaleza. There was no way to remove media off mainframe. Images flashed by of the name and location of Machete’s dealers. Caprice's eyes were watering so badly that he couldn't make it out. He held up his cistron and took pictures of everything.
Hammer threw two computer tables down, one to either side of the doorway, which provided a temporary firebreak and a path out. Caprice crawled his way out of the doorway...
Hammer helped him to his feet. Jim-Bean skidded to a halt in front of the door, blood staining his shirt where the bullet had entered and exited his shoulder.
"There's cops the other way. Go back up to the roof!"
Caprice wiped soot from his face as the flames roared behind him. “I hacked it,” he said, gasping for air. “I hacked it in time.”
Jim-Bean gave him a lopsided smile. "Huh," he said as he resumed jogging towards the stairwell. "Now that’s a serious firewall."
Caprice shook his head and followed after him.