Chapter 1 - The Resignation
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The elevator doors slid shut, severing the sight of Damian Beluchcci standing in the archive room. Norah Witman exhaled a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. Her heart hammered against her ribs, a frantic rhythm that echoed in the empty steel cabin.
She looked down at her right hand. The skin felt exactly the same. It was the same hand that had typed up quarterly reports, filed corporate taxes, and poured Damian his black coffee every morning at precisely eight o’clock. But that hand had just bypassed military-grade biometric security like it was opening a screen door.
The elevator pinged, arriving at the executive floor. The offices were dark, bathed in the amber glow of the city skyline pouring through floor-to-ceiling windows. Norah didn’t go to her desk to collect her favorite pens. She didn’t grab her tailored blazer from the coat rack. She walked directly to the private executive elevator, swiped her soon-to-be-deactivated employee card, and hit the ground floor.
Down in the archive, Damian had not moved. He stared at the green access light on the safe. He pulled his phone from the steel shelf, powering it back on.
He dialed a number that wasn’t in his contacts.
"Elias," Damian said, his voice a low, lethal hum in the quiet basement. "I need you at the tower. Now."
"It’s midnight, Damian. Is the network compromised?" the voice on the other end answered, thick with sleep.
"The vault was opened."
A heavy silence fell over the line. "Did you open it?"
"No," Damian replied, his eyes narrowing as he looked at the space where his secretary had just stood. "Norah did."
"Your secretary? Damian, that lock reads subdermal genetic markers. That’s physically impossible unless she is a direct descendant of the founding bloodline."
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Damian looked at the badge resting in his palm. The plastic edge dug into his skin.
"Find everything there is to know about Norah Witman," Damian ordered. "Every shadow, every ghost in her past. And send Marco to her apartment. Do not let her leave the city."
