Impenetrable

ADX Florence is the most secure prison in the United States. Also known as Supermax or the Alcatraz of the Rockies, it is isolated in Florence, Colorado. Surrounded by mountains and a twelve-foot high razor wire fence. Twelve separate guard towers. Patrolled 24/7 by armed guards with dogs. Laser beams and pressure pads throughout. Military jets in attack range in three minutes. Over a thousand doors that can be shut down by a press of one button. Built not only to prevent any escape, but to repel any attempt at rescue. It is the home of the Unibomber, the Boston Marathon bomber, El Chapo, and several others.

In our story, Mackenzie Carroll is the newly minted head of security at ADX, who must prove herself if she has any hope of becoming the first female warden of the facility. Her first test is to transport Mexican drug lord Javier Luis from Miami federal court to the prison. Then, she has to deal with male prison staff who cannot accept her as their boss. And to complicate things further, an English lawyer from the Global Prison Initiative visits, inspecting the treatment of prisoners.

As the English lawyer and MacKenzie contentiously debate her inhumane attitude and practices regarding inmates, she begins ever so slightly to soften.

Javier Luis, of course, could care less about her problems. He just wants out. And his men are planning just that, by constructing a miles-long tunnel under the mountains. To do that, they must escape detection by posing as a fracking site. They must locate Javier's position within the prison without any access from outside into the prison's stand-alone computer system. To do that, they enlist a computer whiz who implements her plan to implant malware into the system by following prison guards home and having one unknowingly hack into the system.

When that is done, Javier's men join forces with the brother of an Arab terrorist, also housed at ADX. Men and weapons are secreted into the US from Mexico. The assault/rescue begins from two fronts: above ground by Arabs, and below ground by Javier's men. A fierce fire fight ensues on land, creating just the diversion that Javier's people need to break through and grab him.

From her control room, MacKenzie directs the response teams on the ground, until she realizes what is happening with Javier. She rushes to stop him. When the lawyer is briefly taken hostage, she eschews the policy of no rescues, but this permits Javier to get into the tunnel. The race is on to catch him. Using all the arsenal available to her, including a copter, a jet, grenades, automatic weapons, and a handgun, ADX's record of no escapes ultimately remains unblemished.