Chapter 3

The crisis arrived on day fourteen.

Kaelen stormed into the hangar, his composure fractured. His tactical shirt was torn at the shoulder, revealing a bandage soaked in dark blood. He didn't look at Elara with suspicion; he looked at her with desperation.

He slapped a piece of paper against the glass.

"Can you read this?" he demanded.

Elara moved closer. The paper contained a string of chaotic symbols—a mix of Norse runes, binary code, and something that looked like celestial mapping.

"It was found on the body of a rogue wolf near the nursery," Kaelen said, his voice tight with fury. "My cryptographers have been working on it for six hours. They say it’s gibberish."

"It’s not gibberish," Elara said instantly. "It’s a polyalphabetic substitution cipher, layered over a star chart."

Kaelen looked at her. "Can you solve it?"

"I can," she said. "But I need a marker. And access to a star chart of the Northern Hemisphere dated to the mid-12th century."

Kaelen didn't hesitate. He opened the transfer drawer and slid in a marker and a tablet.

Elara went to work. She wrote directly on the glass wall of her cell, turning her prison into a whiteboard. Her mind, starving for a puzzle, devoured the challenge. She connected the runes, cross-referenced the binary with the stellar coordinates.

Kaelen stood and watched. He watched the way her mind moved, the way she muttered to herself, the sheer brilliance of her intellect dissecting a puzzle that had stumped his entire intelligence division.

For Kaelen, who valued power and competence above all else, it was the most seductive thing he had ever seen.

Forty minutes later, Elara stepped back. The glass was covered in black ink.

"It’s a timeline," she said, pointing to the final calculation. "Coordinates. 45 degrees North. The ravine. 2200 hours tonight."

Kaelen checked his watch. "That’s in an hour. That’s the patrol route for the Delta unit."

"It’s an ambush," Elara said. "They are going to trigger a rockslide."

Kaelen tapped his earpiece. "Voric. Pull the Delta unit back. Redirect the Enforcers to the upper ridge. Flank coordinates 45-North. Execute on sight."

He waited. Ten minutes of agonizing silence stretched in the hangar. Elara stood by the glass, her breath fogging the surface.

Then, the radio crackled. "Alpha. Target neutralized. We caught them setting charges. Delta unit is safe."

Kaelen let out a breath he had been holding. He leaned his forehead against the glass, eyes closed.

"You saved them," he whispered.

"I solved the puzzle," Elara said, though a flush of pride warmed her chest.

Kaelen opened his eyes. He looked at her, and the intensity of his gaze pinned her to the spot. "You are not a spy, Elara. A spy would have let them die."

"I told you," she whispered. "I'm just a scientist."

"No," Kaelen said, his voice rough with something that sounded terrifyingly like adoration. "You are remarkable."