was surprising, sterile, and fully exposed through large windows. Elias Vance arrived exactly at

room, looking at the distant dome of the Grand Metropolitan Museum. S

ed softly behind Elias. She

e stated, her European accent clear. "I

old corporate language, but he respected its efficiency. "I found this building's wir

yes. "They lead nowhere important. Our network is a custom built mesh that cannot be tracked.

elationship is defined by necessity. Your job is Intelligence. You give me the vault blueprint and the min

rgent calls only. It operates on maximum encryption. Our main link is this drive. You upload the s

sary calls," Elias promis

ardian Vault. Explain why your 'ghost key' can

atic of the vault onto the white wall. It showed layer

tely comfortable with the technical language. "But the key i

to accept an emergency software patch, meant only to regulate humidity. It was never used. Sloane's team thinks it's only a maintenance

The emergency maintenance

um's 1880 founding date, reversed, then run through a private algorithm based on my own date of birth. It is unguess

drill. We don't blast. We use the system against itself. We run a

logic. "It is the only way to avoid the building wide lockdown and the immediate

he code fails, the VMS seals the vault for four days and calls five extern

t of entry that exis

preview is October twelfth, a Thursday. The Collection will be publicly displayed until 10

chedule. "The VMS enters its low power monitoring state. The security team relaxes,

and show. Now, you must focus entirely on Intelligence. I need the location of every s

vain and predictable. He will be at the gala, and he will remain on site until at least 1:00 AM, che

tting the operational team based on hope, Vance. You designed the flaw, which means you ar

to break your own perfect betrayal. Run simulations. Try to force the VMS to identify the gh

had to attempt to destroy his only path to r

e ghost key code," Elias affirmed.

encrypted drive until the stress test is complete. Your focus must be absol

, the door closing

omplex work of trying to break his own perfect plan. The revenge was now a cold,