" We're out of time!" Silas barked, his weapon up, scanning the corridor.
The data transfer was only halfway complete. Mo Chen made a decision. It was enough. They had to go.
" Detonate the charges!" she yelled.
Silas didn't hesitate. He pressed the trigger.
The world dissolved into chaos. The shaped charges erupted simultaneously, shearing through support columns and severing power lines. The lights flickered and died, replaced by the frantic red pulse of emergency strobes. The deep groan of stressed rock echoed through the chamber as the mountain began to protest its violation.
" This way!" Silas shouted, leading her back through the maze of servers towards their breach.
Kraken security teams poured into the data center, but they were disoriented by the darkness, the collapsing ceiling, and the blaring alarms. Mo Chen and Silas moved through them like sharks through chum, a combination of precise gunfire and searing flames creating a path of carnage.
They reached the crawlspace and scrambled back towards the vertical shaft. Behind them, the sounds of the data center's death throes were drowned out by the much larger roar of the mountain itself settling. A massive crack spiderwebbed across the ceiling of the crawlspace.
They had started an avalanche from the inside.