LOGINShare
Chapter Eighteen: The Siege
publish date:
2026-08-05 23:51:25The archive fell silent.
No one moved.
The officer stood in the doorway, chest heaving as another distant gunshot echoed through Silverfang Tower.
“They're asking for Subject A-01.”
Inspector Mara Voss reacted first.
“How many?”
“We counted at least twelve.”
“Tactical gear?”
“Yes.”
“Police?”
“No markings.”
Mercenaries.
The word settled over the room without anyone saying it aloud.
Chairman Hale stepped back instinctively.
“This building has private security.”
“They've already engaged them,” the officer replied. “The east lobby is lost.”
Marcus looked at me.
“They came here for you.”
“No,” Ronan said.
“They came for what's inside the safe.”
I looked at the scanner.
The display still glowed.
VERIFY IDENTITY
Waiting.
Patient.
As though it had expected this exact moment.
Inspector Voss drew her service weapon.
“Everyone away from the door.”
The officers immediately formed a defensive position.
Ronan turned toward me.
“We have less than five minutes.”
“You're guessing.”
“I hope I am.”
He glanced at the reinforced archive doors.
“They knew where to find us.”
My thoughts raced.
Someone had called me.
Someone had left the key.
Someone had guided me to the archive.
And now armed strangers had entered the building at the precise moment I was about to open the safe.
None of it was coincidence.
Marcus whispered, “Adrian... what do we do?”
Before I could answer, the archive lights flickered.
Then the emergency power activated.
A low mechanical hum echoed through the room.
The hidden safe emitted a soft chime.
Everyone looked at it.
The screen changed.
SECURITY PROTOCOL INITIATED
A second line appeared beneath it.
OWNER STATUS: MISSING
My throat tightened.
Owner.
Not Subject.
Owner.
Sebastian Vale.
The safe knew my father hadn't opened it.
It knew he was missing.
The technician stared at the display.
“I've never seen anything like this.”
Neither had I.
Then another message appeared.
SECONDARY AUTHORIZATION ACCEPTED
No one had touched the scanner.
Ronan frowned.
“What?”
The safe clicked again.
A narrow slot opened beneath the keypad.
A small folded piece of paper slid out.
Nothing else.
I picked it up carefully.
My father's handwriting.
Only six words.
Trust Ronan. Not the board.
I read the sentence twice.
Then a third time.
Marcus leaned closer.
“What is it?”
I folded the paper before anyone else could see it.
“Nothing important.”
Ronan looked at me.
“You're a terrible liar.”
“I know.”
“What did it say?”
Before I could answer, the reinforced archive doors shuddered beneath a heavy impact.
Boom.
Dust drifted from the ceiling.
Another impact followed.
Boom.
One of the officers looked toward Inspector Voss.
“They're using breaching charges.”
“How long?”
“Minutes.”
She turned toward me.
“Open the safe.”
Chairman Hale immediately objected.
“No!”
Every eye snapped toward him.
He realized his mistake too late.
“I mean... we don't know what's inside.”
Ronan took one slow step toward Hale.
“You're afraid of something.”
“I am afraid of recklessness.”
“No.”
Ronan's voice was calm.
“You're afraid Adrian will see whatever his father hid.”
Hale's face hardened.
“You're becoming tiresome.”
“And you're becoming predictable.”
Another explosion rattled the doors.
The hinges groaned.
Inspector Voss pointed at the scanner.
“Chairman Vale.”
I looked at the safe.
If I opened it, there was no returning to ignorance.
If I didn't...
The people attacking the building would eventually get inside.
Marcus spoke quietly.
“Your father left you the key.”
I nodded.
“He trusted you'd know when to use it.”
Ronan didn't say a word.
He simply stepped away from the scanner.
Leaving the decision entirely to me.
For the first time since this nightmare began, no one was trying to influence me.
Not my board.
Not my rival.
Not the police.
The choice belonged to me alone.
I drew a slow breath.
Then placed my right hand against the glass scanner.
A soft blue light swept across my palm.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
The machine remained silent.
Then—
IDENTITY VERIFIED
A deep mechanical rumble echoed through the archive.
The hidden safe didn't swing open.
Instead...
The entire wall behind it began to move.
Concrete slid backward on concealed rails.
Dust poured from the ceiling.
A narrow passage emerged beyond the wall, descending into darkness.
Cold air drifted upward.
Air that hadn't touched the rest of the building for years.
Marcus stared in disbelief.
“There's... another room.”
“No,” Ronan said quietly.
His eyes remained fixed on the darkness.
“It's older than this building.”
The hidden passage continued beneath Silverfang Tower.
A staircase disappeared into the earth.
The lights below flickered on automatically, one after another, revealing polished stone steps.
Someone had maintained this place.
Recently.
At the entrance, mounted into the wall, was a bronze plaque.
Its inscription had survived untouched for twenty-four years.
PROJECT GENESIS
AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY
ENTRY: SUBJECT A-01
Before anyone could react, the archive doors exploded inward.
The blast threw officers off their feet.
Smoke filled the room.
Masked figures poured through the opening with military precision.
Black uniforms.
No insignias.
Night-vision helmets.
The leader raised a rifle—but instead of aiming at the police...
He pointed directly at me.
Then, to everyone's surprise, he lowered the weapon and removed his helmet.
He couldn't have been older than thirty.
His first words sent a chill through the room.
“Chairman Adrian Vale.”
He inclined his head with unexpected respect.
“We're not here to kill you.”
His gaze shifted to the passage behind me.
“We're here to make sure you finally learn the truth.”
Latest chapter
My Rival Alpha Knows I'm an Omega Chapter One Hundred Thirty-Five: The Last Page
The lighthouse stood exactly where it always had.Wind polished its white stone.Salt stained its windows.The sea continued its endless conversation with the cliffs below.It had watched generations arrive.It had watched generations leave.It had never asked to be remembered.Only to keep shining.Years passed.Then more.The names changed.The work did not.The children who once raced through Beacon Twelve became teachers.The teachers became grandparents.The grandparents slowly became stories.New hands repaired fishing nets.New voices filled the schoolhouse.New volunteers polished the lighthouse lens every spring.No one remembered who had first started the tradition.They only knew it mattered.One bright summer morning, a ferry arrived carrying a class of children.They could not have been older than ten.Their teacher led them through the village.Past the bakery.Past Victor's old workshop, where young carpenters now taught children how to carve toy boats.Past the oak tre
My Rival Alpha Knows I'm an Omega Chapter One Hundred Thirty-Four: The Light We Leave Behind
The morning began with a funeral.Not for one of the main characters.For Old Ben Carter.The village blacksmith.He had lived on Beacon Twelve for nearly fifty years.Most people outside the island had never heard his name.Everyone on the island had.He had repaired anchors.Straightened bent hinges.Mended children's bicycles without charging a coin.Forged the iron brackets that still held the school bell.He had never led Orion.Never spoken at an international conference.Never appeared in a newspaper.Yet nearly the entire village gathered beneath the great oak tree.Children carried wildflowers.Fishermen removed their caps.Teachers stood beside carpenters.No one checked the time.Some people deserved an unhurried goodbye.The service was simple.Just as Ben had requested.Stories replaced speeches.A fisherman remembered the time Ben had repaired a boat through the night so a family wouldn't lose their season's catch.A teacher laughed while describing how he secretly sharp
My Rival Alpha Knows I'm an Omega Chapter One Hundred Thirty-Three: When No One Is Watching
Winter returned quietly.Beacon Twelve wore frost like an old coat.The harbor was still.The sea breathed slowly against the cliffs.Nothing remarkable happened that morning.That was precisely why it mattered.Adrian woke before sunrise.Not because he had to.Because the habit had never left him.He stepped outside carrying two mugs of tea.Ronan joined him a moment later, wrapping a scarf around his neck."You still wake too early.""I blame the lighthouse.""You've blamed the lighthouse for twenty years.""It hasn't argued yet."Ronan smiled."Perhaps it's too polite."They stood together on the porch, watching the first light touch the ocean.For several minutes...There was only silence.Comfortable silence.The kind people earn after a lifetime together.Across the village, the bakery lights flickered on.Mrs. Henderson's granddaughter, Lily, unlocked the front door.She was no longer "Mrs. Henderson's granddaughter."She had become the village baker in her own right.The reci
My Rival Alpha Knows I'm an Omega Chapter One Hundred Thirty-Two: The Bench Beneath the Oak
It was market day on Beacon Twelve.The village square buzzed with quiet life.Fresh bread cooled on wooden racks outside the bakery.Children darted between market stalls carrying apples much too large for their hands.Visitors browsed handmade carvings, knitted blankets, and jars of blackberry jam.Nobody hurried.Nobody needed to.Time moved differently here.It always had.The largest oak tree in the square had become impossible to ignore.Its broad branches stretched across nearly half the green.In summer it offered shade.In autumn, a blanket of golden leaves.In spring, birds nested among its highest branches.A small wooden bench rested beneath it.Simple.Unpainted.Worn smooth by countless conversations.A bronze plaque had been attached years ago.It read:Sit long enough to hear someone else's story.Nothing more.No names.No dedication.Just an invitation.Adrian sat there most mornings.Not because he was expected to.Because he enjoyed it.Some days no one spoke to hi
My Rival Alpha Knows I'm an Omega Chapter One Hundred Thirty-One: Twenty Years Later
Twenty years later...No one on Beacon Twelve remembered a world without visitors.Children grew up believing it was perfectly ordinary to hear five languages while walking to school.They thought nothing of seeing historians eating breakfast beside fishermen.Or architects learning carpentry from retired boat builders.To them...This had always been home.The oak trees were enormous now.Their branches stretched across the village square, casting cool shade over long wooden tables every summer.No one remembered exactly who had planted each tree.Only that someone had.Children climbed them every afternoon.Parents pretended not to worry.Grandparents secretly smiled.The lighthouse still stood.Older.Weathered.Patient.Its great lens had been replaced twice.Its walls repaired countless times.The original brass lens key still rested inside the small maintenance box beside the door.Exactly where Adrian had left it.Nobody locked the box.Nobody needed to.Whoever maintained the
My Rival Alpha Knows I'm an Omega Chapter One Hundred Thirty: The Last Keeper
The letter arrived without ceremony.It was handwritten.Folded twice.Addressed simply:To Adrian.He recognized the handwriting immediately.Eleanor.She had been living on Beacon Twelve for so long that she rarely wrote notes.If she wished to speak to someone, she simply walked across the village.Adrian unfolded the paper slowly.Meet me at the lighthouse tonight.Come alone.There is one last story I owe you.The sun had already disappeared when Adrian climbed the familiar spiral staircase.Every step creaked exactly as it always had.The stone walls held the scent of salt and old wood.Nothing had changed.Everything had.Eleanor waited beside the great lantern.She stood with one hand resting gently on the brass railing.The evening light softened the lines on her face.She smiled as Adrian entered."You came.""You asked.""I wasn't sure you still listened to old women."He laughed."I learned that lesson years ago.""Good."She looked out over the sea."So did I."For severa
You may also like
Bogus Billionaire
Shining Riviera793.7K viewsONLY YOU
Rosa Kane772.5K viewsMarried at First Sight
Gu Lingfei32.4M viewsThe Heiress' Return: Six Brothers at Her Beck and Call
Night Eleven579.1K viewsThe Billionaire's Secret Twin
Kareem Sodiq 111 viewsThe billionaire I wasn't supposed to love
Nessy writes28 viewsMarried to the Cold Billionaire After Betraying Him
Emma's Pen15 viewsTrapped Between My Adoptive Brothers
kkyrieehale 136 views
