The living room was dim but alive.
The soft amber light from the under-cabinet strips cast long shadows across the penthouse floor. Twelve girls, draped in oversized shirts, satin shorts, and fluffy socks, circled the lounge table—coffee mugs half full, eyes more awake than they should be at 4:03 AM.
Juliette was on the floor, her legs crossed, arms folded over a throw pillow. "Kaine wants the Vault flushed. Tonight. That's what one of the execs said."
Regg exhaled, rubbing her temple. "And the other one replied, 'If they've missed it, burn them too.'" She leaned forward, her voice clipped. "That's not code. That's a threat."
"They weren't aware anyone heard them," Madi added, her tone calm but low. "Door barely opened. Could've been anyone walking by."
"But it wasn't anyone," Vee said from the sofa arm. "It was us."
A silence settled for a moment.
"I didn't like that phrase on the clipboard," Regg muttered, stirring her cold tea with a spoon. "They're already inside. Written in red. Underlined. Twice."
Oma gave a low whistle. "Sounds like someone knows we're here."
"Or someone else is here," Tessie offered, brows up. "Maybe we're not the only ones with eyes."
Ether shook her head. "No. That line was meant to be seen. Whoever wrote that wasn't just filing reports—they were sending a signal."
"To who?" Mia asked. "And for what?"
Ann leaned against the kitchen counter, arms crossed. "Doesn't matter. We remember what we saw. But we don't overreact."
Iffy raised a brow. "So we're pretending we didn't hear about the Vault? That we're not maybe walking into a burn order?"
"No," Juliette said. "We're calculating. And we're patient."
There was a beat of agreement. No one pushed further.
Debby stretched and cracked her neck. "Then what's today's focus?"
"Surveillance," Madi replied. "Track the Vault's activity from the outside. No one accesses it without leaving a scent."
"I'll keep my eye on Corin," Pesha offered. "That clipboard came from his division."
"Corin again," Vee muttered. "He's starting to give me indigestion."
Tessie yawned dramatically. "And yet you'd flirt with him if we weren't on mission."
"Facts," a few voices chorused.
"Alright," Ether clapped once, "we start the day clean. No paranoia. No heat. We're ghosts."
There were nods, some quieter than others.
One by one, the girls peeled away to begin prep. Showers hissed to life. The kitchen echoed with the clink of breakfast bowls. Hair straighteners buzzed faintly behind bedroom doors.
By 6:00 AM, the three infiltrators—Regg, Madi, and Juliette—were dressed in company blacks, jackets zipped, expressions composed. Their comms were subtly tested and confirmed.
The Auto-Vanta waited, sleek and silent, outside the building.
Regg gave one last glance at the girls who remained.
"You know the drill."
Tessie saluted. "Return with glory."
Ether rolled her eyes. "Just don't return with security."
The trio slipped into the Auto-Vanta. Doors slid shut with a whisper. The vehicle pulled off, unbothered, part of the Conglomerate's morning shuffle.
The house quieted again.
And the clock kept ticking.
---
The hum of morning inside the London Conglomerate was clean, rehearsed, sterile. The lobby buzzed softly with footsteps and datapads. The lighting shifted to match the sunlight outside, but the heart of the building remained the same—clinical, alert.
In the surveillance wing, the trio of infiltrators had already resumed their posts. Madi tapped through script checks on a mirrored console, Juliette adjusted audio feeds with meticulous calm, and Regg sat skimming through yesterday's footage archives with one ear tuned to the comm-link.
Back at the penthouse, the other girls moved with their usual rhythm—some cleaning data trails, others reviewing security logs. They had already discussed the phrase Regg spotted on the clipboard the night before. "They're already inside." It rang louder now in hindsight, more like a whisper aimed directly at them than an observation.
"Eyes open," Ether had warned earlier. "If they're sweeping, we stay ahead."
At 10:19 AM, a soft ping echoed on Regg's screen.
> Notice: R. Winchester, report to Director Lior Veyne's office. 10:30 sharp.
She blinked once, twice.
Then casually pushed her comms button. "Uh... I just got summoned. Director Veyne."
A pause filled her ear, followed by Vee's flat reply: "What?"
"You?" Madi whispered, tone shifting just slightly.
"Yeah." Regg's voice stayed steady. "It's official. I'm going up."
"Stay neutral," Juliette said immediately. "Smile like a receptionist. Mind your tells."
From the penthouse, the girls jumped into silent formation.
"I'll route audio," Madi muttered, already sliding an earpiece into her palm. "Keep line open until she steps in."
Ann scribbled a time marker. Oma's fingers flew across a secure tablet, ghost-routing backup access in case the building locked down.
"Do not lie if he already knows," Ether said sharply. "But don't hand him more than he asks for."
"I know." Regg exhaled once and stood. "I've got this."
She walked.
Down the length of the corridor. Past the eyes. Past the cameras.
Past Corin Draed, who lingered near a side terminal, attention seemingly elsewhere—but they all knew better.
By the time she stood outside Lior's office, the tension had rooted itself like steel through her spine.
She knocked once.
"Come in."
The door eased open. The office smelled of leather, clean air, and cool steel.
Lior Veyne stood behind a glass desk, hands clasped, suit crisp. He didn't smile.
"Regg Winchester," he said smoothly. "Let's talk about your access history."
She stepped in.
The door latched shut like a sealed vault behind her. No turning back.
Regg stood straight, hands loose by her sides, every instinct alert but buried under a mask of calm.
Lior Veyne didn't motion for her to sit.
He didn't need to.
The room said enough: minimalist, clean steel lines, the soft hum of air filtration and silence that stretched too long.
"I've reviewed your logs, Miss Winchester."
His tone was even, but it bit around the edges.
Regg tilted her head slightly, saying nothing.
"You're efficient," he added. "But... you move like someone used to different floors. Higher ones."
She blinked once. "Is that a compliment?"
Lior smiled—just barely.
"Tell me," he said, circling to the side of the desk with his arms still folded, "do all twelve of you practice that timing, or does it just come naturally?"
That froze her spine.
He let the silence settle like dust.
"I'm not sure what you mean," Regg replied, voice measured.
"That's the second lie you've told since you walked in."
He took a step closer, only enough to make the space feel smaller.
"You see, Miss Winchester, you and your colleagues... you're organized. But you're not invisible. Not here."
The flicker in her eyes was brief, but it registered.
Still, he wasn't watching for weakness. He was measuring weight.
"You think I'm talking too much," he said suddenly. "I'm not. I'm warning you... quietly. That's the only kind of warning people like me give."
Regg's throat was dry but her tone was steel.
"Should I be worried?"
Lior looked at her like a chessboard.
"No. But you should be ready."
He turned away, walked toward the desk again, and picked up a file—not hers.
"Keep your steps quiet. And your exits cleaner."
With that, he returned to his chair.
"You may go."
She didn't wait for a second dismissal.
The door clicked shut behind her.
Regg didn't breathe until she was three corridors away. Her steps were sharp, measured, but her eyes were doing too much—tracking corners, reflections, shadows. Like she'd stepped off a cliff and hadn't hit the ground yet.
At the far end of the hall, Juliette leaned against a vending unit, thumbing idly through her phone. Madi was by the elevator, eyes locked on a tablet she hadn't been reading.
They didn't move until Regg approached.
"You good?" Madi asked softly, already knowing she wasn't.
Regg didn't answer at first. Her voice only came after she exhaled through her nose.
"He knows."
Juliette's brow twitched. "Knows what?"
"About us. All twelve."
Madi straightened. "Shit."
Juliette didn't react outwardly, but the flick of her eyes said she was calculating every move they'd made since Day One.
---
Back in the penthouse, the rest of the girls were gathered—some still wrapped in throw blankets, others sipping from mugs. A thin buzz of tension filled the air, as they'd all been listening in, thanks to the comms link Regg had kept live in her sleeve.
Vee sat forward on the couch, legs bouncing. "What do you mean he knows about the twelve?"
"Did she say that?" Tessie asked, half-laughing, half-scared.
Ether looked up from her sketchpad. "She said it. Regg wouldn't just—"
"She wouldn't lie," Ann cut in, voice tight.
"I knew that man was too clean," Iffy muttered, hugging a pillow. "He looks like he irons his soul every morning."
Pesha rolled her eyes. "So what now? We freak out? Call Kaine? Call Jesus?"
Mia leaned her head back against the couch. "We don't panic. We think."
Oma tapped her mug against Debby's. "See? This is why I stay in my robe and don't spy for a living."
Juliette's voice crackled back through the comm, grounding them. "We'll update you when we're back. Just stay sharp."
The call ended.
For a second, no one moved.
Then Vee stood up, dramatically clapping her hands. "Okay. Let's all pretend like we didn't just listen to Regg almost die inside and get back to looking like cute law-abiding citizens."
Laughter. Thin, but real.
Because if they lost that, they'd start losing other things too.
---
The air had that sterile corporate hum—too clean, too quiet. Regg leaned against the edge of the indoor terrace railing, arms folded tight. Juliette stood beside her, half-watching the floor below while Madi hovered near the wall, keeping an eye on the hallway's blind spots.
"I need to breathe fire," Regg muttered, eyes narrowed. "He knew our names. All twelve."
Juliette's jaw tensed. "He say how?"
"No," Regg exhaled, rubbing a thumb against her ring finger. "Didn't have to. He said them like he's said them before. Calm. Certain. He wasn't guessing, Jules. He knows."
Madi pushed off the wall, voice low. "We need to assume Lior's not just Kaine's errand boy."
"No," Regg replied, her tone flat. "He's his shadow."
There was a long pause before Juliette spoke again, steady as always. "That means we're not slipping through cracks. We were let in."
"Or we were always expected," Madi added.
A sharp chime echoed down the hall. All three of their heads turned—just an internal system ping, but it was followed by something worse.
A murmur in the office.
Then silence.
A low-level exec walked briskly past them, fingers flying across his tab. Behind him, a junior assistant whispered sharply, "It's happening early."
"What is?" Madi asked, casual, masking the tension in her tone.
The assistant blinked like she hadn't seen them. "Clearance update... digital rollback or something—high-level files are getting locked or wiped. Vault-class stuff."
She vanished around the corner before they could press further.
"Vault," Regg said, under her breath. "That's what he meant."
Juliette was already moving, drawing them into a more private alcove. "They're flushing it."
"All of it?" Madi asked.
"Probably," Juliette replied. "Digital records. Surveillance archives. Employment backtraces."
"Maybe more," Regg added. "If our identities were flagged—"
"—they'll be gone soon." Juliette finished.
Regg tapped her wrist discreetly.
::Penthouse. Incoming feed.::
Back at the girls' lounge, holographics bloomed into motion. The girls leaned in close—Ann, Debby, Pesha, Oma, Iffy, Tessie, Vee, Ether, and Mia all clustered around the hovering feed as it decrypted.
Regg's voice filtered in.
"They're purging the Vault," she said tightly. "We think it's the digital archive holding security logs, ID flags—maybe even metadata from our profiles."
"Wait—flushing it?" Vee asked, already yanking open her tab. "That's permanent."
Juliette's voice followed. "We either get in now, or we never do."
Mia straightened. "So… what do we do?"
There was a beat of static—then Madi cut in.
"Question is, do we stop it, sneak in, or let it happen and cover our tracks?"
Juliette's voice, sharp and cool: "Whatever we decide, we decide now."
---
Regg, Juliette, and Madi crouched low in the Conglomerate office corner, fingers flying over keyboards, tension thick as smoke. The Vault was disappearing—fast.
Regg muttered, "They're wiping the whole damn thing. If they hit our files, we're screwed."
Juliette shot back, "Keep it together, Regg. Losing your cool won't help."
Madi glanced at the comm mic, voice tight, "Girl's, you copy? Vault's getting flushed. We're running out of time."
At the penthouse, chaos was in full swing.
Mia sat on the couch, laptop open, fingers tapping furiously. "Ripping that camera feed now. Ether, you got my back?"
Ether responded cool and steady, "Yeah, on it. Disconnecting the main stream—give me a sec."
Tessie bounced on her heels, half-smiling, "Well, shit's definitely heating up. Anyone else feel like we're in some action movie?"
Oma crossed her arms, voice calm, "Focus up. No room for screw-ups."
Ann paced with a furrowed brow, "Regg, what's the update? We ready to pull you out if things go south?"
Vee smirked, voice confident, "Nah, we hold this down like pros. Ain't no way we fold now."
Debby whispered, "Feels like they're right on top of us."
Back at the Conglomerate, the office lights flickered.
Juliette hissed, "Great. What now?"
Madi stared at the big screen—then froze.
A live feed popped up—a camera angle right on their location.
Regg's voice sharpened, "Shit, that camera wasn't supposed to be active."
Juliette's eyes narrowed, "They're watching us."
Madi slammed her fist lightly on the desk, "Girls, emergency! New cam popped up—broadcasting us live. We're on their radar."
The comm line lit up with frantic typing and hushed voices.
Mia snapped, "Cut that feed. Ether, can you blackout the signal?"
Ether's voice cracked slightly, "Almost… hold on…"
At the penthouse, fingers flew, eyes locked on multiple screens. Breaths held tight.
Ann called out, "Disconnecting all external feeds! We're going dark."
Oma's voice steady, "Eyes sharp. No mistakes."
Vee looked around, "If this leaks, we're done. Keep comms tight."
Debby hovered over the emergency extraction button, ready.
The screen at the Conglomerate flickered—then went black.
Silence.
—
The team exhaled—but the weight of what just happened settled in.
Everyone knew: this was only the start.