The first whispers of dawn bled through the silk curtains, casting pale golden lines across Sophie's bed. She hadn't slept. Not even for a minute.
The photograph sat on her nightstand like an invitation to a different life—one her father had lived in silence and secrets.
"Orion."
A name. A code. Or a trap?
She slipped out of bed and moved with purpose. By noon, she was dressed in a charcoal-gray trench coat that flattered her slender frame, a leather satchel slung over her shoulder, and a plane ticket to Geneva hidden inside her passport.
She didn't tell Aiden.
Not because she didn't trust him.
But because she didn't trust the war he was trapped in.
---
Meanwhile, back in the city, Aiden stood before a towering one-way glass, looking out at the skyline with eyes darkened by doubt. His phone rang once. He picked up immediately.
"Tielen?" His voice was steel.
"We lost her signal, sir."
He turned sharply. "What?"
"She boarded a flight under an alias. Used one of her father's dormant passports. Destination: Switzerland."
Aiden's pulse slowed.
He knew exactly where she was going.
Lux Holdings. The dormant vaults her father had designed.
"She's walking into Voss's playground…" he muttered.
Tielen spoke quietly. "Do you want us to intercept her?"
"No." Aiden paused. "Follow, but don't engage. I'm coming."
---
Geneva, Switzerland.
A city of elegance and shadows.
Sophie stepped into the icy wind, her heels echoing on cobbled stone as she approached the discreet, fortress-like building nestled between a boutique watch store and a flower shop.
There was no sign. Just polished steel doors and a biometric scanner.
Lux Holdings.
The bank for the world's darkest money.
The receptionist—a pale woman with silver spectacles—gave Sophie one look and stood.
"Miss Hart," she said, as though she had been expecting her. "Follow me."
Sophie followed the woman into a silent hallway lined with frosted glass and steel. Finally, they entered a vault room.
No guards.
No questions.
Only a retinal scanner, now glowing.
Sophie stepped forward, heart pounding.
The machine clicked. Then hissed.
A steel panel slid open, revealing a narrow drawer holding a sleek black card and a USB drive in the shape of a chess knight.
A small note lay beneath:
"XVII – IX – I – V – XIII… When the stars align, unlock the vault beneath the mountain. Orion knows the way."
She stared at the drive. And the card.
Was this what Voss was after?
Suddenly, the lights flickered.
And the door behind her clicked shut.
Aiden's voice rang from the speaker above.
"Sophie. Step away from the drawer."
She spun. "How did you—?"
"Voss's men are on the way."
Her heart stopped. "You followed me?"
"No. I anticipated you." A pause. "This vault was rigged. He expected you to come. The whole building is being watched."
She grabbed the card and the drive. "Then we're getting out."
A second voice broke through the speaker.
Not Aiden.
Deeper. Colder.
"I'm afraid she's not going anywhere, Mr. Hart."
It was Voss.
Sophie's blood chilled.
"She's holding something that belongs to me," Voss said. "But don't worry. I'll return her... eventually."
Gunfire crackled through the hall outside. The lights died completely.
Sophie grabbed the drive and dashed to the vault's rear—when a hidden panel opened behind her.
Aiden stepped through, gun in hand, fury in his eyes.
He grabbed her wrist. "Come on."
"You broke into a black vault?"
"I built the exit."
Together, they vanished into the tunnel—just as Voss's men burst into the empty vault behind them.
---
Thirty minutes later, deep beneath the Swiss Alps, in a snowy safehouse lit by one flickering fireplace, Sophie sat shivering but alive. Aiden paced.
"You shouldn't have come alone."
"I had to know."
He knelt before her, gently taking the USB from her hand. "This chess piece… it's the key. Your father left behind the map to something even Voss couldn't find. And now we have it."
Sophie stared into the fire. "What's beneath the mountain, Aiden?"
He looked at her with a shadow in his eyes.
"Power."
Then he added quietly,
"And the truth about who your father really was."
---