The vault lights flickered as Isabella pocketed the drive.
Above them, the sound of metal groaned heavy doors opening. Not the exit.
A different entrance.
Elias's voice was tight in their earpieces. "Renwick just breached the secondary corridor. Thermal scans show he's not alone."
Alexander drew his sidearm. "Of course not. The ghost brings a damn army."
Isabella glanced at the countdown: 11:19.
"We need another way out," she said, moving to the back wall. She remembered what Mercer once told her in passing—'No vault is ever a prison unless someone makes it one.'
She ran her hand along the edge of a console until she found a hairline crack—hidden.
A maintenance shaft.
Alexander helped her pry it open just as the first concussion shook the floor.
"Charges," Elias confirmed. "He's blowing through steel like it's tinfoil."
Into the Dark Veins
They crawled through the shaft as thunder echoed behind them. Each meter was tight, lined with cables and vent shafts, old wiring from Cold War security systems.
"Where does this lead?" Alexander hissed.
"Anywhere but here," Isabella answered, pushing forward.
They emerged into an abandoned stairwell two floors above. Dust choked the air. A red EXIT light blinked above a reinforced door.
As they approached it—crack—a bullet pinged off the wall beside them.
Renwick's men had found them.
"Move!" Alexander shoved Isabella through the door as gunfire erupted behind them.
Down narrow halls, past forgotten safes and flickering lights. Blood pounded in their ears. When they finally burst out into a sub-level garage, they found a black motorcycle waiting.
Elias's voice buzzed, calm and deadly. "Thought you might need wheels. Remote-activated ignition. Don't thank me yet—it's rigged to blow if anyone but you rides it."
Isabella swung on, Alexander behind her.
The Dead Man Watching
As they raced up the ramp, a figure stepped out from the shadows ahead.
Tall. Scarred. Renwick.
He didn't raise his weapon. Didn't flinch.
Instead, he smiled beneath a jagged scar running from jaw to temple. "The King wants you to know—this was your first test."
Then he stepped back, vanishing into darkness as they roared past him.
Outside, the cold night hit like a wave. Behind them, the building locked down. Sirens. Flames.
Isabella didn't look back.
Because the worst part wasn't Renwick's appearance… it was what he didn't do.
He let them go.
Which meant the real game was only just beginning.