Chapter 2 No.2

The rain in New York was not cleansing; it was dirty and cold, slicking the streets with a grime that felt permanent. Evelyn didn't take the town car. She didn't want the driver, a man on Julian's payroll, logging her location. She hailed a yellow cab, the vinyl seat cracked and smelling of stale tobacco.

Destination: The Brooklyn Navy Yard.

She wore a nondescript beige trench coat, a scarf wrapped high around her neck, and oversized sunglasses. To the world, she was just another woman trying to stay dry. To the facial recognition scanners at the entrance of Sterling Laboratories, she was a ghost in the machine.

She bypassed the visitor desk. She didn't need a badge. She held her wrist up to the sensor, and the hidden chip in her watch-not the bio-tracker Julian knew about, but the modification she'd made herself-pulsed. The turnstile clicked open.

The security guard, an older man named O'Malley who had been Special Forces in a past life, looked up. He didn't say a word, just gave a sharp, respectful nod. He knew she was vetted. He knew she wasn't Mrs. Vance.

Evelyn walked through the corridors, the hum of servers and the scent of ozone calming her nervous system. This was her church.

She entered Dr. Fiona Sage's private lab. Fiona was hunched over a microscope, her red hair tied back in a messy bun held together by a pencil.

"Evelyn," Fiona said without looking up. "You're late."

"I was initiating the exit strategy," Evelyn said, closing the door and locking it.

Fiona spun around on her stool. Her eyes went wide. "You did it? You started the clock?"

Evelyn reached into her coat pocket and pulled out a USB drive. It was small, silver, and contained enough data to send Julian to federal prison for fraud, embezzlement, and intellectual property theft.

"The clock is ticking," Evelyn said. "I have six days to transfer the assets and scrub my history. I need you to hold this."

She handed the drive to Fiona. Fiona plugged it into her air-gapped terminal. Lines of code scrolled down the screen. Fiona's mouth dropped open.

"Holy hell, Evie. He's leveraging the patents he hasn't even secured yet? This is... this is a Ponzi scheme built on biotech."

Evelyn walked over to the retinal scanner on the far wall. This was the final step for her pre-clearance.

She leaned in. A red laser swept across her eye.

Scan Complete. Subject Unrecognized.

Evelyn typed a sequence of numbers into the keypad below: her original dissertation ID.

Override Accepted. Identity Confirmed: Dr. Evelyn Thorne.

A red light on the ceiling flashed silently. Director on Floor.

Evelyn stiffened. Alistair Sterling. The Director. The man was a ghost, a legend in the field, and terrifyingly perceptive. She wasn't ready to meet him. Not yet. She needed to be fully detached from Julian first.

"I have to go," Evelyn said. "Don't release the data yet. Wait for my signal."

She slipped out the back exit of the lab, moving toward the main atrium. The atrium was a massive glass structure, open to the public for investor meetings and PR events.

She was halfway to the exit when she froze.

Standing near the VIP elevators, under the massive digital display of a DNA helix, was Julian.

He wasn't at a board meeting. He wasn't downtown. He was here, in her sanctuary, trying to sell her science to investors.

And he wasn't alone.

Scarlett was with him. She was wearing a dress that was inappropriate for a lab, something tight and red. She had her hand on Julian's forearm, her fingers tracing the fabric of his suit.

Julian leaned down, whispering something in her ear. Scarlett threw her head back and laughed, a sound that carried through the cavernous space.

Evelyn stepped behind a concrete pillar. Her heart slammed against her ribs. If he saw her here, the game was over. He would know she wasn't the clueless wife. He would know she had access.

Her phone buzzed in her pocket. The one Julian paid for.

Text from Julian: Meeting running late. Boring as hell. Miss you.

Evelyn watched him send the text. She saw him type it with one hand while the other hand rested possessively on the small of Scarlett's back.

She felt a strange sensation. It wasn't jealousy. It was dissociation. She felt like a scientist observing a rat in a maze. A rat that was about to walk into a trap.

A lab technician in a white coat walked past the pillar, nearly bumping into her. He opened his mouth to apologize, to ask if she was lost.

Evelyn turned her head. She lowered her sunglasses just an inch. Her eyes were cold, hard flint. She put a finger to her lips.

The tech shut his mouth, swallowed hard, and hurried away. He didn't know who she was, but he knew authority when he saw it.

Julian and Scarlett stepped into the elevator. The doors closed.

Evelyn let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. She walked out into the rain, the water soaking her coat, washing away the last lingering doubts. She wasn't just going to leave him. She was going to dismantle him, piece by piece.