The elevator doors opened onto Floor Eleven with a soft chime that did nothing to soften the tension inside the hallway. This floor was the nerve centre of internal affairs, a ring of glass offices surrounding a cluster of secure rooms where investigations were usually handled in silence.
Tonight, silence felt like a lie.
John stepped out first, posture controlled but radiating danger. Rita followed closely, her eyes scanning the corridor for anything out of place. Morgan walked behind them, tablet in hand, watching the network status live.
The building seemed to hold its breath as they passed.
Security officers straightened.
Assistants paused mid-step.
Doors quietly shut when they approached.
Word had already spread across The Crest.
John was back.
Cavanaugh was gone.
The Benefactor was captured.
Floor Thirteen was locked down.
And someone inside the building was betraying them.
Every whisper carried fear.
Every glance carried suspicion.
Every shadow seemed to stretch thinner.
Morgan tapped something on the tablet. "Boss, your orders caused a chain reaction. Half the department heads just requested emergency meetings. The others shut down their communications entirely."
Rita scoffed. "Typical. The guilty always go quiet first."
John headed for the central hub, a circular room where transparent screens hung from the ceiling like floating sheets of light. Analysts usually worked here twenty-four-seven. Tonight, the room had only one person present.
Cassandra Ward.
She stood in front of the primary display, arms folded, calm as ever.
She turned when they entered.
"John," she said. "The board is panicking. They want clarity. They want assurances. And they want you to address them within the hour."
John approached her. "They will get nothing until I have answers."
Cassandra studied him. "Then you came to the right place. I began my own sweep the moment Cavanaugh was taken away."
She motioned to the glowing screen.
"What you are about to see is troubling."
Rita stepped closer. "Define troubling."
Cassandra tapped the interface.
The screen split into three panels.
Left panel: Cavanaugh's movements over the last forty-eight hours.
Middle panel: Shadowed communication logs.
Right panel: A list of access attempts on Harold Raymond's old archives.
Morgan's eyes widened. "Someone accessed the Founder Vault. That is impossible. Only Harold's biometric signature could unlock it."
Cassandra nodded slowly. "Except one person in this building has a forged copy of that signature."
John's voice dropped. "Who?"
Before Cassandra answered, she changed the screen.
A single name appeared.
Celine Archer.
Chief Legal Advisor.
Rita felt her stomach tighten. "Celine. She was Harold's personal counsel."
Morgan gulped. "She was the one who drafted half the Raymond Foundation's inheritance frameworks."
John said nothing.
Cassandra continued, "She accessed the Founder Vault two hours after you entered the Sanctuary. She wiped several entries from the archive logs. She removed one of Harold's secured tablets. And she used an internal route that bypasses every standard failsafe."
Morgan whispered, "She was planning a move the moment she thought you were gone."
Rita frowned. "Where is she now?"
Cassandra turned back to the screen. "That is the second problem. No one has seen her since she left the archives. Her office is empty. Her channels are offline. Her access card stops pinging after Floor Nine."
Morgan looked down. "She is hiding."
Rita stepped beside John. "Or she is running."
Cassandra shook her head. "Celine Archer does not run. She prepares."
John finally spoke. "And if she is prepared, she is part of the Benefactor's network."
Cassandra exhaled. "Or worse. She might outrank him."
The room fell silent.
Rita stared at her. "What do you mean, outrank him?"
Cassandra looked at the glowing logs. "Harold Raymond did not build The Crest alone. He worked with an elite group of strategists. People with influence far deeper than the Benefactor's reach."
Morgan swallowed. "You mean another House."
Cassandra nodded. "Celine Archer was one of them."
John stared at the name on the screen.
A woman he had seen in boardrooms for years.
A woman who never raised her voice.
A woman who always stood two steps behind the conversation.
Quiet. Precise. Invisible.
The most dangerous type.
"She stole my father's tablet," John said. "And she wiped the logs so I could not see what was on it."
Rita clenched her fists. "What exactly did Harold hide in there?"
Cassandra replied without emotion. "His real contingency plan. The one he never shared."
Morgan's voice cracked. "Which means Celine has it."
John turned toward the door. "We need to find her."
Cassandra stopped him with a single sentence.
"There is something else."
They looked back.
Cassandra pulled up another screen.
A map of The Crest building.
Floor by floor.
Several of them glowed red.
Rita stepped forward. "What is that?"
Cassandra's voice remained calm, but her eyes were sharp.
"That is the surveillance audit. Someone has been erasing camera footage across multiple levels."
Morgan whispered, "But only someone from Intelligence can override your systems."
Cassandra nodded.
"Yes. Which means someone inside my department is helping her."
Rita exhaled slowly. "This building is turning into a maze of traitors."
"No," John said.
His voice cut through the tension.
"This building is turning into my battlefield."
Cassandra straightened, looking at him with measured curiosity.
"Then you will need a strategic plan."
John nodded. "I already have one."
Morgan blinked. "What is the plan?"
John turned away from the screens.
"We hunt her from the inside out."
Rita nodded. "Floor Nine first."
Morgan clutched his tablet. "I will map every erased feed."
Cassandra watched them.
"You understand," she said quietly, "that if Celine has Harold's tablet, she has access to secrets even the Benefactor does not know."
John paused at the doorway.
"Good," he said. "Then she will understand exactly what is coming for her."
Far below, inside her shadowed hideout, Celine Archer sat at a small table lit by a single lamp. Harold's tablet glowed in her hands as she scrolled through files almost no one alive knew existed.
A quiet smile touched her lips.
"So John found the Benefactor," she murmured. "That changes nothing."
She tapped the screen, revealing a hidden lineage, a symbol, and a name that had been buried for decades.
She whispered, "Harold's real heir was never meant to replace him. He was meant to fight him."
She closed the tablet.
"And I will finish what your father would not."
She rose slowly, her heels clicking quietly against the tiles.
The Crest did not know it yet, but the real war had just begun.
John reached for the elevator button, jaw clenched with resolve.
Rita stood beside him. "We are ready."
Morgan activated a new tracker. "Floor Nine is waiting."
As the doors opened, John stepped in first.
"We move tonight," he said. "Before Celine strikes."
The elevator dropped.
The battle for The Crest had begun.