The vault felt smaller than it had a moment ago, the walls closing in as the heavy air of the underground bunker turned frigid. Chen Wei stood at the threshold, the harsh beam of a high-powered tactical light mounted to his rifle cutting through the ozone haze. The leather vest he wore was cracked and weathered, the Iron Wolves patch on his back featuring a design I’d only seen in the history books the Original Fang.
"Dad?" The word felt like a betrayal. I looked at the man who had raised me in a grease-stained garage, the man who had taught me that a person’s worth was measured in the precision of their work, not the weight of their name.
"I told you to stay in the shop, Mia," Chen Wei said, his voice devoid of the warmth I had clung to for twenty years. He didn't lower his weapon. "I t
