Chapter 5 - THE VAULT OF SECRETS"You died in a supermax facility in Siberia," Holden said, lowering his gun an inch as he stared down at the man who had tormented his childhood.
"Faked my death, just like your sister faked hers," Viktor wheezed, his eyes darting toward the heavy obsidian doors hidden behind the grand staircase—doors that had just slid open automatically, triggered by the proximity of the little girl waking up inside the medical wing.
Phantom growled, pressing his jaws closer to Viktor’s carotid artery, waiting for a single word from Holden to end it all.
"Let him up," a small, clear voice echoed from the hallway.
Holden and Viktor both looked up. Standing at the top of the grand staircase, wrapped in a blanket, was the little girl. Her amber eyes shone with an eerie, steady light. She wasn't starving or frail anymore; her posture was upright, commanding, mirroring the exact presence of the grandfather who had ruled the underworld before them.
"Valerie?" Viktor whispered, his eyes widening in horror. "No... you were a baby when—"
"I am not Valerie," the girl said, her voice carrying a chilling maturity that belonged to no seven-year-old. "I am Aria. Valerie’s daughter. And my mother sent me here to finish what you started."
Aria walked down the stairs step by step. As she reached the bottom, the open vault doors behind the staircase glowed with a soft blue biometric light, revealing rows of stacked gold bars, digital drives containing decades of political blackmail, and the original blueprints of the global syndicate.
"The vault is open," Aria said quietly, looking directly at Holden. "And the Syndicate's entire network has just been uploaded to every federal agency, international Interpol node, and rival cartel database on the planet. Their accounts are frozen. Their safehouses are being raided as we speak."
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Viktor thrashed beneath Phantom, his face turning purple. "You little bitch—you destroyed everything!"
"No," Holden said, stepping forward and pressing the barrel of his pistol firmly between Viktor’s eyes. "We just cleared the board."
