Chapter 27: Through Fire and Frost
Ela didn’t want to let go.
Her father—weak, aged, and altered by years of experimental captivity—was finally in her arms. The man she thought she’d lost to time and shadow was real. Breathing. Remembering.
He gripped her hand, his voice gravelly, as if unused for years. “They said you’d never come. Said you wouldn’t remember.”
Tears welled in Ela’s eyes. “They were wrong. I never stopped remembering. Never stopped searching.”
Behind them, Stuart moved to secure the room. Logan’s voice buzzed in his earpiece.
“We’ve got thirty minutes before the patrol rotates again. You need to extract now. There’s chatter. They know someone’s breached Vault Sigma.”
Stuart responded with precision. “Copy. We’re moving.”
He turned toward Ela. “We need to get out of
