Thirty floors below, Jamison and the double agent, Darrow, observed the action through security cameras.

"That dog don't hunt no more." Darrow leaned away from the monitor. Sinclair's girlfriend secured the device. He'll be able to override our control of CENTIEN."

Jamison laughed. "I don't care if we have to destroy this building and the whole block. I want Sinclair dead before he uses that second app on us."

"What do you mean?" Darrow asked. "We still haven't extracted the original ICARUS app out of its casing."

"They die or we go to jail. We'll have Station Earl techs in Jersey extract the software. Meanwhile, we'll take them out the old-fashioned way."

Jamison pulled out his phone and called Casper on a secure line. "We have a situation, Casp. Sinclair has the backup ICARUS app. He's on CENTIEN's  fiftieth floor. I need you to shake the tree!" Looking at the computer screen, he gave Casper the floor coordinates for a kinetic strike.

Jamison narrowed his eyes at Darrow. "Don't you think that's cutting it a bit close? We have about fifteen minutes before they disintegrate this building. Let's go."

Taking the original ICARUS app with them, they headed for the stolen Tesla SUV. As they ran down the marble tiled hallways, the banking cartel magnate gloated, "Luckily, I doubled the insurance for terrorist attacks on this building. I don't care if they demolish the whole thing if it kills Sinclair. We make money either way."

A large pair of elliptical blue eyes watched the two Operatives make their way towards the elevator. Ten feet from the glass elevator, a ten foot cyber snake slid out of the air shaft. It coiled on the floor like a firehose, then reared into the air blocking their path.

Darrow and Jamison halted. "What the fuck is that?" Jamis search for an alternate path to the elevator.

Darrow narrowed his eyes. "The artificial intelligence cyborg Sinclair developed." For a split second he admired the superlative technology impeding their escape.

Jamison saw the glass elevator doors begin to open. "It's not a weapon. Ignore it," he ordered. He moved forward to circumvent the metallic snake, but the inquisitive creature shimmied in front of him. The hood opened and the cobalt blue eyes glowed.  The large cobra scanned both of them and then tilted its head down as of disapproving of the two criminals. An androgynous voice announced, perimeter seal initiated."

"That things going to lock us in here." Alarms and red lights flashed us in the hallway as of they were in a submarine preparing to submerge.

"Kill it," Jamison shouted.

Darrow pulled out his Glock and shot six rounds at the large snake's head. The snake emitted an invisible magnetic field deflecting the bullets off of itself. Jamison and Darrow ducked as the glass elevator walls shattered behind them. The snake darted back into the air duct.

"Son-of-a bitch."

The two men ran to the elevator. Stepping over broken glass, they entered the the metal cage. The elevator apparatus scanned Darrow's retina.
Blue eyes honed in on him as the snake slithered out of an elevator air duct shaft and around the elevator hydraulic system. The cyborg lowered and then entered the metal cage. With its fangs, it snatched  the Glock from Darrow's hand. Darrow grasped the gold guard rail with both hands and lifted his feet With all his might, he kicked the metal reptile in the chest. The metallic creature was propelled backwards. Unbalanced, the cyborg snake teetered at the edge of the elevator shaft. Jamison and Darrow both kicked and pushed the AI cyborg until it tumbled out of the elevator.

"Thank God. I hate snakes." Jamison grimaced.

They heard a metallic scraping sound and looked at the elevator's clear glass bottom. The snake's tail clasped the bottom of the elevator as it dangled under the car. The creature dropped the Glock, then formed a u-shape as it gymnastically reached upwards with its mouth as it tried to clamp onto the elevator grid.

"Shit! It's trying to climb back in. We have to crush it." Darrow punched in the lower level button and the two men were propelled up and backward as the elevator's skeletal cage hurtled downwards.