She was leaning against the wall, her face pale, holding a damp cloth over her mouth.

“Lila is safe,” Nora gasped, her voice trembling.

“I locked her in the inner vault.”

“You shouldn’t have left her,” I said.

“You needed a way in,” she replied.

I squeezed her shoulder once.

There was no time for gratitude.

I dragged Elena toward the wall-mounted terminal next to the elevator.

The panel was glowing with a faint blue light through the dust.

It was the central override node for the estate’s automated security grid.

If I could lock it down, every reinforced steel barrier in the house would drop.

“The code, Elena,” I said, pressing her face against the cold glass of the screen.

She spat blood onto the casing.

“Caleb has the master key,” she whispered, a grim smile on her lips.

“You’re already locked out.”

I didn’t need her code.

I reached into my pocket and pulled out the physical bypass key I had kept hidden for ten years.

It was a small, brass cylinder with a unique magnetic signature.