The last of the shifters fell behind them, smoke still curling from fractured stone and sparking systems. The air reeked of scorched power cores and blood—burnt protein, ozone, and the strange metallic trace of weapons that were never meant to be used in the open.
Ahead, the vault loomed.
A bunker sealed inside another bunker—its doors thick as starship plating, fitted into a mountain of reinforced alloy and cold military pride. It didn't scream secrecy. It whispered it. A warning dressed as a wall.
Ava's system pinged.
[LOCATION CONFIRMED: VAULT SECTOR 9]
[MAIN ENTRY LOCK ENGAGED – ACCESS PROTOCOL: ALPHA PAIR]
[AUTHORIZATION MATCH: LUCAS BAI – AVA ZHANG]
Lucas stepped up to the center console beside the first set of doors. His boots echoed like a metronome as he moved, calm despite the tension coiling around them.
Ava followed, slower, her eyes scanning every angle—every camera, every shift of the built-in sensors that blinked in steady intervals.
