Infiltration

The air in the vault tasted of ozone and damp, rotting paper. Elaine stared at the monitor, the blue light washing out her skin as she finished the final encryption sequence. Her biometric seal—a jagged, digital signature her father had embedded in her identity years ago—thrummed beneath her touch, locking the 'Debt of Origin' ledger away from Vanguard’s reach.

Mei Ling stood by the reinforced door, her hand hovering near a heavy iron bolt. She wasn’t looking at the door; she was watching Elaine with a mixture of raw resentment and dawning, terrifying clarity.

“My brother worked three shifts at the docks to pay for his ‘tuition’,” Mei Ling sa

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