Chapter 19
Her fingers brushed against a heavy, leather-bound volume titled The Colorado Civil Code of 1952. Unlike the surrounding books, its spine didn't have dust on it. In fact, it was worn smooth at the bottom edge.
Meredith gripped the book and pulled.
With a satisfying mechanical clack, the entire bookshelf groaned and slowly pivoted inward on hidden hydraulic hinges, revealing a dark, descending stone staircase lined with modern motion-activated LED strips.
A cool rush of subterranean air drifted up from the darkness, carrying the faint scent of ozone and old paper.
Meredith didn't hesitate. She stepped through the opening, her tactical flashlight cutting through the shadows as she descended the spiral stone steps.
At the bottom was a heavy, titanium-alloy vault door with a digital biometric scanner and a manual combination wheel. Her father had always been excessively cautious, but she knew his patterns. She entered her late father's birthday combined with her own—a code she had found written on the inside cover of his personal diary.
The digital panel flashed a brilliant, approving green. The massive steel bolts retracted with a deep, echoing thud, and the heavy door swung open.
May you like
Meredith stepped inside, and her breath caught in her throat.
The room wasn't filled with gold bars or stacks of cash. Instead, it was a high-tech archive containing thousands of digitized data drives, original patent certificates, and rows of filing cabinets labeled with names she had never heard before—alongside one cabinet marked with a single word: STERLING.
