Oryn Ashveil's Arc

Chapter 2 of 4

Oryn stared at the gray vault across the street. Cameras ringed its door. Blinking locks lined the frame. She still wore the stiff clerk's uniform, but a uniform meant nothing if she didn't know where inside her proof was hidden. A blind rush through those doors would get her caught in minutes. She needed a map of the place before the leader's address. Petra crouched beside her, chewing a thumbnail. "You can't just walk in and guess," the girl said. "Guards, floors, sealed rooms. You'd hit a wall and they'd have you." "Then I need someone who's seen the inside," Oryn said. Petra's face changed. "I know someone. She runs deliveries nobody else will touch." The girl was already moving, tugging Oryn down a side lane. "Come on. She won't wait." They found her three blocks off, leaning against a concrete wall with a dented metal case at her feet. A woman in a faded red delivery jacket, sharp eyes flicking over both of them at once. Petra clearly trusted her; Oryn didn't. The stranger studied Oryn's silver buttons and smirked. "Nice costume," the woman said. She tapped the case. Forged clearance codes were stamped right on the metal. "I'm Nev. Petra says you want the vault. Nobody wants the vault." "I need its layout," Oryn said. "Where they store confiscated files." Nev crouched, opened the case, and slid out a worn press badge. Scuffed metal edges, a regime eagle, a stranger's photo. STATE MEDIA. "Delivered a crate there last week," she said. "They log press separate from the rest. Confiscated media goes to the lower level, behind a coded gate." She turned the badge in her fingers. "This gets you past the front. It won't get you through the gate below." Oryn took the badge. Warm from Nev's hand. "How do you know the gate?" "Because I stood in front of it and couldn't pass." Nev pulled a scrap of paper from the case and sketched fast. Front desk. Two guards. A stair down. A heavy door with a keypad. "Lower level. That's where your proof sits. Behind numbers I never got." Petra leaned over the sketch. "So we know where it is now." "We know where," Oryn said. She folded the map and the badge into her jacket. The blind break-in was dead. She had a floor plan and a face to wear at the front door. Nev snapped the case shut and stood. "You'll clear the lobby with that badge. Then you'll reach a locked gate underground and a keypad you can't crack." She met Oryn's eyes. "I gave you the map. I can't give you the code." Oryn looked at the folded sketch. The vault no longer felt blind. It felt like a straight path to one sealed door she still couldn't open. And the leader's address was hours away.