Chapter 31
Chapter 31: A Ripple in the Water
The house was quiet. Elara was fast asleep, her small chest rising and falling rhythmically beneath a quilt Claire had made. My father had retired to his room hours ago.
I sat in the dark living room, nursing a glass of bourbon, listening to the gentle lapping of the lake against the dock. It was perfect. It was everything we had fought for.
Then, my smartwatch vibrated.
It wasn't a standard notification. It was a single, long pulse, followed by two short ones. My blood ran cold. It was the emergency frequency for the Vanguard Protocol.
I set my glass down quietly and moved to my study. I booted up the hidden terminal behind the bookshelf. The screen flickered to life, casting a harsh blue glow across my face. A single line of text blinked on the encrypted dashboard:
May you like
[ALERT] VANGUARD NODE 04 COMPROMISED. UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS.
Node 04. That was the offshore server farm holding the Syndicate's old blackmail archives—the ones we had supposedly scrubbed. Someone was trying to dig up the past.
