Chapter 10 ROOM B20

VIVIAN POV

Adrian Kane was not supposed to be alive.

I stood behind the tinted glass of my office, my finger resting lightly on my table, watching him disappear through the club’s side entrance with Rook beside him.

I had spent weeks studying his movements and reports about the Project Apex disaster. But none of those reports had prepared me for today. 

Adrian was calmer than I expected, too calm for a man with half a million credit bounty on his head. 

Most wanted men I have dealt with here were always desperate. They made foolish mistakes because fear forced them to act before thinking, but Adrain was different. 

I had started studying him not because I was interested in him but because he was part of the people who worked on Project Apex alongside with my brother. So I believed he knew something I didn’t. 

But there was a problem and it wasn’t going to be easy because from my observation, Adrian had barely spoken during our conversation.

He watched every movement around him. Every question I asked, he always found another question to throw at me,  Even when he agreed to something, he looked like a man already searching about it. 

Trusting him would be difficult. But I didn’t need to trust him. I needed to know what he knew.

I turned away from the window, walking towards my door, flicking the brass lock to avoid anyone interrupting me.

My desk was covered with encrypted files I had collected over the past few months. Most were connected to Project Apex- financial ledgers and some corrupted servers logs. 

One file sat apart from the others, resting in the center of my table. 

JULIAN VANCE.

I smiled in pain before pulling it closer. My brother’s photograph was clipped to the front of the folder. 

He was smiling in the picture, his hair slightly messy as always and his shirt collar rough. Julian had never cared much about looking presentable when he was working. He was brilliant but chaotic. 

“You were always terrible at taking pictures, Julian.” I whispered into the quiet room. My smile disappeared as quickly as it came.

I opened the file, my eyes scanning the lines I had already memorized for years. 

JULIAN VANCE — SYSTEMS ENGINEER.

PROJECT APEX ASSIGNMENT: APPROVED.

STATUS: MISSING.

SUSPECTED INVOLVEMENT: UNDER INVESTIGATION.

“Suspected involvement.” That was the phrase they had used to bury him. The official story claimed Julian had stolen an Apex core and disappeared.

I had never believed it.

Julian was reckless with his sleep schedule, his money and sometimes his temper when things go wrong but he wasn’t selfish to run with a core worth millions. 

On the third page, It said… Julian had accessed a restricted section of the system shortly before the disaster. But I still couldn’t open the file connected to that access.

The authorization was locked with a double security layer, so it needed an authorization connected to a higher clearance member. 

I had tried opening the restricted personnel record at V-17 before but I got denied. Three weeks of digging brought me to the same issue every time. 

I needed someone with higher clearance. Someone like Adrian Kane.

A week ago, his name appeared in one of my reports and  I never expected him to walk into my club tonight.

I leaned back slowly, letting out a long exhale as I stared up at the ceiling. Maybe that wasn’t a coincidence, it was meant to be. 

I reached for another document. 

Site V-17.

The location Adrian and Rook had visited tonight before coming to BLACK IRIS CLUB. 

I flipped through the pages. 

Three names appeared beside the location. All three belonged to engineers from Julian’s original team. I had spent weeks trying to understand what connected them to the site.

But tonight, Adrian and Rook had walked straight into the answer or at least, they had walked close enough for me to know I was looking in the right place.

I searched through Julian’s documents again, until I found a code which I hadn’t seen earlier. 

RESTRICTED PROJECT APEX ACCESS. ROOM B20.

I stared at the number, my breathing getting slow as a sharp knock interrupted the silence instantly. “Come in.”

One of my floor managers stepped inside quietly, holding a digital clipboard against her chest. 

“Boss, the eastern partner group wants to know if tomorrow’s private meeting is still happening.” she said, keeping her eyes respectfully lowered. 

“Tell them it’s postponed.” I said smoothly, not offering a reason. 

She nodded without questioning. “Understood. Anything else you need tonight?” 

“No. Lock the staircase behind you.”

“Yes boss.” She left, while I listened to her retreating footsteps. I waited until the staircase door closed before looking back at the file.

Tomorrow’s meeting could wait but Julian couldn’t. I needed real answers. And Adrian Kane, might be the only person who could give them to me.

But I wasn’t going to trust him simply because our goals happened to overlap in a single night. 

I needed something concrete first - a test of his loyalty, information about my brother's fate and also access to the restricted personnel record.

That would be my condition, before accepting his proposal. 

If Adrian could help me open it, I’d give him information on what I knew about the people who had accessed his credentials on the night of his crash. 

If he couldn’t… or if he refused… Then I wouldn’t help him out and find another way with or without him. 

I closed the paper file with a loud thud and glanced at the digital clock ticking on my wall. It wasn’t so late yet. 

My mind suddenly returned to the conversation we had downstairs.

I had noticed Adrian had brought something with him, inside his coat. I hadn’t seen it clearly, but I had noticed the way he handled it.

Like a man holding a live explosive or the only piece of evidence that could save his life. Whatever it was, I knew he didn’t want me knowing about it, but I must figure that out. 

I leaned back, a cold realization settling over me as I realized the irony. 

This actually made two of us.

I smiled faintly. “Fair enough. Director Kane.” I whispered to the dark glass of the window. 

I reached across the desk and picked up Julian’s photograph one more time, running my fingertips over it. 

For a brief moment, I allowed myself to put aside the Ghost Broker persona and simply remember him the way he was before Project Apex consumed his life.

He used to tell me that: Information was never dangerous by itself. It was what people did with it that mattered.

I had laughed at him then, calling him “a bore,” who spent time reading an old tech manuals. 

But now, I believe he wasn’t boring as I turned the photograph over to avoid overthinking. 

My fingers stopped.

A small note was written on the back. It was Julian’s handwriting. “Don’t miss me too much sister.”

But the date beneath it wasn’t. It had been written three days after his supposed death.

Julian hadn’t disappeared during the disaster.

Someone had helped him disappear.