[Jake's POV]
The white gas poured from the ceiling vents in thick, heavy cascades, pooling on the floor and slowly rising like a toxic tide. Through the lenses of my tactical goggles, the red emergency lights gave the fog a sinister, bloody hue.
I stood near the center of the vault, my assault rifle raised, watching Darius work.
He wasn't trying to breach the titanium blast door at the entrance. He was at the far back wall of the vault, pressing the last three blocks of high-yield C4 directly against the reinforced concrete.
"The blueprints Katarina provided showed a structural weakness here," Darius said, his voice muffled and metallic through the rebreather mask. He molded the explosive putty with calm, terrifying precision. "This wall backs up to the primary elevator shaft for the subterranean levels. If we blow it, we can access the cables and climb out of the kill box."
