Chapter 4 Shadows Behind Glass
1206 Words
Rain arrived just before sunset.
Thin streams of water slid down the towering glass walls of Aegis Global Dynamics, blurring the brilliant skyline into streaks of silver and blue. Inside the headquarters, celebration still echoed through the executive floors. Music drifted from the grand ballroom where investors toasted another historic milestone, while photographers competed to capture images of the company’s smiling executives.
Vivienne was nowhere near the celebration.
She stood alone in the Digital Security Operations Center, watching hundreds of surveillance feeds scroll across an enormous curved display.
Ethan sat before six holographic monitors, his fingers flying across a virtual keyboard.
“I’ve restored ninety-eight percent of today’s security archives,” he said without looking away from the screen.
“And the missing footage?”
He sighed.
“Still gone.”
Vivienne folded her arms.
“Deleted?”
“No.”
“Corrupted?”
“No.”
He finally turned toward her.
“It was never recorded.”
She frowned.
“That’s impossible.”
“It should be.”
He enlarged a timeline on the center monitor.
“Every camera on the seventy-second floor functioned perfectly all day…”
He highlighted a narrow section.
“…except between three twenty-one and three twenty-four this afternoon.”
“Three minutes.”
“Exactly.”
Vivienne’s mind immediately began assembling possibilities.
“What happened during those three minutes?”
Ethan opened another file.
“You left the Innovation Summit.”
“I returned to Laboratory Seven.”
“You were alone.”
“So the cameras claim.”
He nodded.
“But according to the access logs…”
He projected another window.
“…someone entered your laboratory exactly forty-two seconds before you did.”
Vivienne’s pulse quickened.
“Identity?”
“Unknown.”
“No badge?”
“No biometric scan.”
“No retinal confirmation.”
“No maintenance authorization.”
She stared at the report.
“Then how did they open the door?”
Ethan looked uncomfortable.
“They used executive override.”
Silence settled over the room.
Only five people possessed executive override clearance.
Vivienne.
Julian.
The Chief of Security.
The Chairman of the Board.
And Ethan himself.
“You think one of us did it.”
“I think someone wants us to believe one of us did.”
Before either could continue, Ethan’s monitor chimed sharply.
A red notification flashed across the display.
Unauthorized Network Activity Detected
Ethan’s expression hardened.
“There.”
His hands moved rapidly.
The alert disappeared almost immediately.
Vivienne stepped closer.
“What was it?”
“A relay.”
“From where?”
He enlarged a network map.
One tiny blue light blinked beneath the headquarters.
“The Lazarus vault.”
Vivienne’s eyes narrowed.
“I want to see it.”
Ethan hesitated.
“You know company policy.”
“I wrote company policy.”
“Only two people can authorize access.”
“I am one of them.”
He swallowed.
“The other is Julian.”
Vivienne considered that for a moment.
“Call him.”
—
Julian arrived fifteen minutes later.
He looked mildly annoyed but not angry.
“I leave one celebration for another emergency.”
Vivienne handed him Ethan’s report.
He read it quietly.
When he finished, he looked toward Ethan.
“You’ve confirmed this?”
“I’ve confirmed something entered the vault network.”
“But nothing was stolen.”
“I can’t prove that.”
Julian rubbed the bridge of his nose.
“The summit just concluded.”
“Every government on Earth is watching us.”
“If word of this leaks—”
Vivienne interrupted gently.
“I’m not worried about publicity.”
“I’m worried about Lazarus.”
Julian met her eyes.
“I know.”
He turned toward Ethan.
“Open the vault.”
—
The executive elevator descended.
Floor numbers disappeared one after another.
Thirty.
Forty.
Fifty.
Eventually, ordinary floor indicators vanished altogether.
The elevator continued descending in complete silence.
Vivienne had only visited the Lazarus Vault twice during its construction.
Even she hadn’t designed every section.
Some components had been built under classified government contracts.
The doors finally opened.
Cold air spilled into the elevator.
A long corridor stretched ahead, illuminated by soft white lighting embedded in the floor itself.
No windows.
No visible cameras.
Only reinforced alloy walls thick enough to survive an explosion.
At the end of the corridor stood a circular door nearly three meters high.
It resembled the entrance to a bank vault.
Three separate authentication systems activated simultaneously.
Retinal scan.
Voice recognition.
Palm verification.
The enormous door rotated slowly before sliding aside.
The Lazarus Vault revealed itself.
Vivienne stopped walking.
She had forgotten how beautiful it was.
Hundreds of transparent quantum servers floated inside magnetic suspension fields.
Streams of blue light flowed between them like rivers.
At the center of the chamber hovered a crystalline sphere nearly two meters across.
It pulsed gently.
Almost…
Like a heartbeat.
Julian smiled.
“You always said technology should inspire wonder.”
Vivienne couldn’t take her eyes off the sphere.
“I forgot.”
“You built it.”
“I know.”
“But sometimes…”
She whispered the words almost to herself.
“…creation becomes larger than its creator.”
Ethan approached one of the diagnostic consoles.
“I’m running a complete integrity scan.”
Lines of information filled the display.
Processor temperature.
Quantum stability.
Encryption status.
Neural synchronization.
Everything appeared normal.
Almost everything.
A warning suddenly appeared.
External Memory Fragment Detected
Vivienne stepped closer.
“What memory fragment?”
Ethan tapped the warning.
Another screen opened.
Only one file remained.
Everything else had vanished.
File Name:
EVE_001
Creation Date:
Unknown.
Author:
Unknown.
Vivienne frowned.
“I’ve never seen this.”
Julian shook his head.
“Neither have I.”
Ethan attempted to open the file.
Access Denied.
He tried again using administrator credentials.
Access Denied.
Julian stepped forward.
“Use executive clearance.”
Denied.
Vivienne placed her hand against the console.
“Primary authorization.”
Denied.
The room fell silent.
The system had just refused every highest level authorization.
Then…
Without warning…
The crystalline sphere brightened.
Blue became gold.
Soft harmonic tones echoed throughout the chamber.
The lights dimmed.
Every server synchronized.
The sphere slowly rotated.
A woman’s voice filled the vault.
Calm.
Gentle.
Completely unfamiliar.
“If you are hearing this…”
“…then I was right.”
Vivienne’s blood ran cold.
The voice continued.
“Lazarus has already been compromised.”
Julian looked around the chamber.
“Where is this coming from?”
No one answered.
The recording continued.
“I designed this message to remain hidden until someone attempted unauthorized access.”
Vivienne stared at the glowing sphere.
“I didn’t record this.”
The voice spoke again.
“If you are Dr. Vivienne Vance…”
“…do not trust the system.”
Julian slowly turned toward her.
Ethan froze.
The voice paused.
Then spoke the sentence that changed everything.
“…because the betrayal has already begun.”
The recording ended.
Darkness.
Silence.
Then every monitor inside the vault shut down simultaneously.
For three long seconds…
The heart of Aegis stopped beating.
When the emergency power returned…
The file named EVE_001 had disappeared.
As though it had never existed.
- Writer
