Chapter 7: The Aegis File

POV: Alessia Rowan

I stepped back down into the subterranean quiet of Silo Haven B-3, pulling the heavy temporary entrance hatch shut until the iron latch clicked firmly into place. I turned the secondary locking wheel twice, sealing myself off from the world above.

Outside, the afternoon air was thick with tension, but eighty feet underground, the silence felt total.

I carried my duffel bag directly to the temporary command table in the lower rail hub, setting my encrypted laptop down beside a small desk lamp. My hands were steady, but the spotter’s final words kept ringing in my head like an alarm bell.

Aegis Security.

In my past life, Aegis was the private military force that took over Blackridge City after the central government fell apart. They built the high walls around the safe zones. They controlled the food lines, the weapons, and the gates. And their supreme commander—Commander Briggs—was the man who ordered the gates locked when the infected swarmed the lower district. He was the man who watched from the guard tower while Gideon and Nessa pushed me into the street.

I opened my laptop, connected to my secure satellite network, and began typing.

My fingers flew across the keyboard, bypassing three levels of corporate firewalls to access the private registry of Aegis Defense Systems.

"Let's see what you were really buying, Gideon," I whispered to the empty room.

The screen flashed as decrypted files loaded line by line.

A detailed transaction log popped up on the display. It wasn't a recent contract. The earliest entries dated back six months before my rebirth—long before I ever suspected Gideon of betraying me.

I scrolled down through the encrypted attachments, my eyes locking onto a set of familiar digital schematics.

They were architectural blueprints. Not of Silo Haven, but of my mother’s private residential estate, her family storage vaults, and every commercial property owned by the Rowan Trust.

Below the blueprints was a signed transfer authorization form.

Seller: Gideon Foster (Secondary Executive)

Buyer: Aegis Defense Systems – Acquisition Division

Item: Subterranean Spatial Records & Foundation Data

Payment Status: Cleared – $250,000

My chest tightened as a wave of realization washed over me.

Gideon wasn't just stealing money from my bank account to buy cars for Nessa or fund lavish dinners. He was selling my family’s property records directly to Commander Briggs. He was handing over the structural layouts of every safe location my family owned, prepping them for seizure long before the virus ever leaked from the underground labs.

"You were selling me out from the very beginning," I said softly, staring at the digital signature on the screen.

In my past life, I thought Gideon's betrayal was a sudden act of panic when the monsters arrived at our door. But sitting here in the quiet glow of the monitor, the cold truth lay completely exposed. He had planned it for months. He and Nessa were clearing out my assets while Briggs lined up the tactical ownership.

I closed that window and pulled up my primary supply portal.

If Aegis was already tracking my mother's trust records, they would be monitoring every major purchase order linked to my name or my primary banking accounts. If I ordered tons of non-perishable food, medical gear, water purification units, and solar arrays straight to Silo Haven, Briggs would know the exact location of my main survival hub within hours.

"I won't make it that easy for you," I muttered.

I opened a fresh logistics program and created twelve separate dummy corporation profiles using off-grid tax identification numbers I had secured three years ago.

I split my supply orders across three different surrounding cities—Oakridge, Red Creek, and Fairview.

I routed five thousand cases of long-shelf-life rations to an empty commercial warehouse in Oakridge. I sent three industrial water filtration units to a private storage depot in Red Creek. I ordered advanced medical supplies, trauma kits, and surgical gear to a rental bay in Fairview under a fake corporate name.

None of the orders pointed to Silo Haven B-3. To anyone watching the logistics traffic from the outside, it looked like a scattered real estate group liquidating assets and storing equipment across the state.

Once the supply routes were completely masked, I opened the deepest archived folder on the Aegis central database—the classified civilian priority index.

During an outbreak, private military contractors maintained lists of high-value individuals, scientists, and political figures earmarked for evacuation.

I typed in my late mother’s maiden name: ANNA LAWSON.

The database processed the query for three seconds before a restricted file pulled up, highlighted in dark red text.

Subject: Anna lawson-Rowan

Priority Classification: Level 1 – Biological Asset / High Specialization

Status: Deceased (Unverified)

Flagged Date: March 14, Six Years Ago

Notes: Subject holds primary patent keys for Sub-Level 4 Cellular Stabilization Protocols. Descendant Access: Alessia Rowan (Primary Heir).

I sat completely frozen, staring at the words on the screen.

March 14, six years ago.

My mother hadn't just been a gentle businesswoman who died of a sudden illness eighteen months ago. She was listed on Aegis Security’s biological priority index as a key asset six years before the virus even existed in the public eye. And my name was attached to her file as the primary heir to her patent keys.

"What did you leave me, Mom?" I whispered, my voice trembling in the dark room.

The mystery was far deeper than Gideon’s greed or Nessa’s jealousy. Aegis wasn't just chasing money—they were chasing whatever my mother had locked away before she died.

Before I could click on the attached patent files, a sound echoed through the underground facility.

Three slow, deliberate strikes against the heavy outer steel hatch at the top of the entrance shaft.

I closed my laptop instantly, the bright light from the screen vanishing. I stood up from my desk, my muscles going completely tense, my heightened hearing picking up the faint vibration of metal ringing eighty feet above.

Contractor Jennings had taken his crew to fetch heavy equipment and wouldn't be back for hours. The two mercenaries were left disarmed in the woods.

Whoever was standing outside that heavy steel hatch had bypassed the main gate without making a single sound.

I reached down to my belt, my hand wrapping tightly around the handle of my utility knife, my eyes fixed on the dark stairway leading up to the surface.