The night air was thick with tension and the sharp scent of ozone as Elena stepped off the emergency elevator. The entire Vale Tower had been evacuated—except for the private floor Nicholas had taken her to under the radar.
They were alone.
Or so she thought.
"You really have a secret floor beneath the penthouse?" she muttered, eyeing the sleek metallic walls and minimalist design of what looked like a private server room and office hybrid.
Nicholas didn't respond immediately. He was scanning the biometric panel beside the vault-like door ahead of them, his jaw clenched tight.
"This floor doesn't exist on public records," he finally said. "It's where I keep projects that are… off-grid."
"And my sister?" Elena snapped, folding her arms.
Nicholas's hand froze an inch above the biometric scanner.
"She came here once," he said, not looking at her. "Uninvited."
The scanner blinked green, and the vault door slid open with a quiet hiss. Beyond it was a room lit only by the hum of blue lights from rows of server racks—and something else.
A large glass panel dominated the far wall, and behind it, a small room—completely white, sterile, empty save for a single table and chair.
"She sat right there," Nicholas said quietly. "And she told me something I never expected."
Elena moved closer to the glass, pulse thrumming. "What?"
"She said someone inside my company was blackmailing her."
Elena blinked. "What?"
Nicholas turned to face her. "Kate stumbled onto a project codenamed AURELIA. It was experimental, dangerous, and not sanctioned by any of my lead teams. Someone had hidden it deep in our cloud servers. She tried to bring it to me, but before she could… she was gone."
Elena's head spun. "So she didn't disappear—she was silenced."
"I thought she left. That she got scared. But after what happened tonight with the lockdown—whoever's still covering this up, they're watching everything."
"And you're just now telling me?" Elena's voice rose.
"I didn't know who I could trust," Nicholas said, stepping closer. "Not until tonight."
Something in his voice sent a chill through her. It was low, personal.
"I saw her journal," Elena whispered. "The last file she wrote. It was encrypted, but the last word was your name."
Nicholas didn't flinch. "Then she trusted me. Or tried to."
A sudden beep interrupted them.
Nicholas walked over to a console embedded in the wall and swiped through several holographic screens. His expression hardened.
"What is it?" Elena asked, stepping beside him.
"Access logs," he muttered. "Someone accessed this server room fifteen minutes before we arrived."
"What?"
He brought up the security feed.
The footage played: grainy, looping—until someone appeared in the corner of the screen.
A woman. Blonde. Wearing a hood and gloves. Face mostly obscured.
Elena leaned in.
"I know that walk," she said, voice trembling. "That's Kate. That's my sister."
Nicholas looked at her sharply.
"No," he said. "Kate's gone. You know that."
"I'm telling you," Elena insisted. "I'd recognize her anywhere."
Nicholas zoomed in on the figure. But just before the face could come into focus, the footage glitched and scrambled into static.
"What the hell?" he muttered. "Someone wiped it in real-time."
A burst of static exploded from the console, and the lights flickered violently overhead. The server racks began to buzz like angry wasps.
Nicholas grabbed Elena's arm. "We need to go. Now."
They rushed back into the corridor, but the vault door slammed shut behind them with a metallic clang, locking them out—and trapping whoever was inside.
Or whatever.
As they moved, Elena's phone buzzed. A new message.
No name. Just a number.
And a sentence:
> "You're chasing the wrong billionaire."
She stopped in her tracks.
Nicholas glanced back. "What is it?"
She showed him the message.
His eyes narrowed. "Someone's playing games."
"Or telling the truth," she countered.
They were halfway to the elevator when Nicholas stopped.
"What?" she asked.
"I need to show you something else," he said. "Something even Kate didn't see."
He led her to another door—this one protected by retina scan. The lock clicked open after a green flash, revealing a room far more modest than she expected. No servers, no tech—just a wall of old-style filing cabinets and paper documents.
"Analog," he said. "Harder to hack."
He pulled open a drawer labeled AURELIA. Inside were dozens of red-marked files and a slim leather-bound notebook.
He handed her the notebook.
It wasn't his.
It was Kate's.
Elena stared at the name scrawled on the first page in her sister's handwriting.
She flipped through the pages, heart racing.
Each one was filled with notes, drawings, diagrams—and names.
Dozens of names.
And at the very bottom of one page:
> They're using the AI to replace people. Real people. They're building replicas—undetectable. Starting with interns. Testing how long until no one notices they're gone.
Elena dropped the notebook.
Nicholas bent to pick it up, but paused.
"Elena," he said slowly. "This file… it mentions you."
"What?"
He flipped to another page and read aloud.
> If anything happens to me, they'll come for Elena next. They already know she's been digging into the internal chat logs. She's too smart to stop. But if she finds Vale first, maybe… just maybe, she'll survive what I didn't.
The blood drained from Elena's face.
Her sister hadn't just gone missing.
She had tried to protect her.
"Why didn't you tell me sooner?" Elena whispered.
"I didn't know this existed," Nicholas said. "I swear to you."
Another buzz from her phone.
Same number. A video this time.
She hit play.
Static at first. Then the camera panned across a dimly lit corridor. A woman sat in a chair, head bowed, hands restrained.
The camera drew closer.
She looked up.
It was Kate.
Alive.
"Elena…" the voice on the recording whispered. "Don't trust Vale. He isn't who you think."
The screen went black.
Elena staggered back.
Nicholas's face had gone pale.
"I swear," he said, stepping forward, "I don't know where she is. I thought she was dead—Elena, look at me—"
But she was already backing away.
Everything was spinning.
The one man she thought might help her… was now the only man Kate warned her against.
"You lied to me," Elena whispered.
"I didn't," Nicholas said. "I swear, I'm being set up—"
A loud boom shook the room.
The wall behind them exploded inward, sending debris flying.
From the smoke, armed men in black tactical gear poured in—no insignias, no hesitation.
Elena reached for the door handle but was yanked back.
One of the masked men pointed a gun at her face.
"Target secured," he said into his comm. "Bring in Subject Alpha."
From behind them, another figure stepped in.
Unmasked.
A woman in a white suit, hair pulled tight, eyes sharp as razors.
"Elena Carter," she said coolly. "Welcome to the other side of the mirror."
Nicholas snarled. "Lena Bexley."
Elena looked between them. "Who the hell is she?"
"My ex–co-founder," Nicholas said darkly. "The one I shut down when she tried to launch AURELIA without oversight."
"And now I'm the one cleaning up your mess," Lena said. "We warned you to stop digging, Elena. But now it's too late."
She turned to her team.
"Take her. Wipe him."
Nicholas lunged—but a stun baton slammed into his chest, dropping him instantly.
Elena screamed.
Two guards grabbed her arms.
And as they dragged her away, she caught one last glimpse of Nicholas—
Convulsing on the floor, eyes wide.
And then—
Darkness