Chapter 1 - The Enemy at the Vault
The heavy steel door of Vault 7 groaned under a violent, mechanical strain. Outside, the screech of metal grinding against metal echoed like a war cry. Sparks flew through the tiny seam of the door as an industrial hydraulic spreader—the kind used by emergency rescue crews—bored its way into the doorframe.
With a deafening SNAP, the deadbolt shattered. The thick, insulated door swung open, throwing a blinding shaft of pale yellow warehouse light across the frost-covered floor.
I was on my knees, my breath coming in ragged, ice-crusted gasps, my hands clutching my belly as another brutal contraction tore through my body. The cold had already turned my skin a terrifying shade of blue, and my vision was blurring at the edges.
Through the haze of frost and pain, a figure stepped into the doorway. She was clad in a heavy thermal parka, holding an industrial crowbar in gloved hands, her breathing heavy.
I squeezed my eyes shut, expecting one of Victor’s hired accomplices sent to finish the job. But when the helmet light caught her face, my heart stopped.
It was Evelyn Reed.
Evelyn was the woman I had spent the last three years despising. She was my former supervisor, my fiercest corporate rival, the ruthless executive who had tried to get me fired during my first year at the pharmaceutical distribution plant. She was the woman who had spread rumors about my qualifications and fought me tooth and nail for every promotion.
"Clara!" Evelyn’s voice shattered the silence, entirely devoid of her usual sharp, condescending edge. She dropped the crowbar with a heavy clang and rushed toward me, dropping to her knees in the freezing slush. "Oh God, Clara... hold on!"
"E-Evelyn?" My jaw was trembling so violently I could barely form the syllables. "What... what are you..."
"Don't talk. Just breathe," Evelyn ordered, her hands already stripping off her outer thermal jacket and wrapping it tightly around my frozen shoulders. She grabbed a thick fleece blanket from her duffel bag and tucked it around my body. "I’m getting you out of here right now."
"My babies..." I gasped, doubled over as a wave of sheer, agonizing labor hit me again. "Evelyn... the babies are coming... I can't walk..."
Evelyn didn't hesitate. She hooked her arms under my armpits, her teeth grit with determination, and dragged me out of Vault 7’s freezing abyss, pulling me into the heated hallway of the warehouse. The sudden shift from negative forty-five degrees to seventy degrees hit my body like a physical blow.
She slammed the warehouse service door behind us, cutting off the arctic draft, and laid me down on a pile of padded moving blankets she had clearly laid out beforehand.
"How... how did you know?" I sobbed, my tears freezing on my cheeks as I looked up at my sworn enemy. "How did you find me?"
Evelyn looked down at me, her eyes burning with an intense, fury-fueled focus. "Because Victor is a amateur monster, Clara. And he tried to pull the same trick on me."
My breath hitched. "What?"
"Two days ago, Victor approached me at an industry networking event," Evelyn said, her voice dripping with venom as she checked my pulse and placed a warm thermal pack against my lower back. "He tried to recruit me into a supply chain fraud scheme. He offered me two million dollars if I would use my master access key to wipe the warehouse security logs tonight at midnight. He told me there was going to be an 'unfortunate system malfunction' in Vault 7."
I stared at her, paralyzed by horror.
"He thought I was bitter enough about losing my promotion to you that I’d gladly help him get rid of you," Evelyn continued, her jaw tightening. "He told me you were having an affair and trying to take everything from him in a divorce. He wanted me to be his getaway driver, his blind spot. But Victor didn't know that while I might hate corporate politics, I am not a killer. And I sure as hell know how to do a background check."
Evelyn reached into her pocket and pulled out a stack of printouts, tossing them beside me.
"I ran his credentials through an independent security database yesterday," she said quietly. "Victor didn't just take out a life insurance policy on you, Clara. He took out three. And six months ago, he put a lien on your house under my forged signature to cover his gambling debts. He was setting us both up. You were meant to die in that freezer, and I was meant to take the blame as the bitter ex-rival who tampered with the vault controls."
The truth washed over me like scalding water. Victor hadn't just tried to murder me and our children for money—he had orchestrated a masterclass in framing the one person he knew the police would suspect.
A scream tore from my throat as a massive contraction ripped through my spine.
"Evelyn!" I screamed, grabbing her wrist with a force that surprised us both. "The head... I can feel the head! They're coming right now!"
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Evelyn looked down, her face turning pale for a split second before her military-honed discipline kicked in—a discipline I had forgotten she possessed from her years as an army combat medic before entering the corporate world.
"Alright, Clara," Evelyn said, throwing off her gloves and grabbing a pair of sterile medical scissors and clamps from her bag. "You and I might have hated each other for three years. But tonight, we survive together. Push!"
