Chapter 1196

He knew exactly what this meant.

It was a declaration of absolute, unconditional trust.

It meant Serena was stripping away her final, most lethal disguise, placing her life and her greatest secrets entirely in his hands without a single reservation.

The sheer weight of her trust and favor struck Nicholas right in the heart, making his blood run hot.

He reached out and grasped Serena’s hand.

His palm was warm, trembling ever so slightly.

Serena didn’t look back; she simply squeezed his hand in return. “Come on. I’ll show you around p>

Nicholas nodded. “Okay p>

He followed closely behind her, navigating through the sprawling underground base until they reached the absolute core-The Nexus.

Jaxon and the other operatives exchanged bewildered looks.

Then, they stared blankly at the retreating figures of the two walking hand-in-hand.

Their eyes were glued to those intertwined fingers.

“Alright, it’s confirmed. That’s really our… our… future boss’s husband p>

“Calling him a husband feels weird. He should be the future Consort of the Alliance.” “Consort sounds even weirder, don’t you think? I say… we call him His Grace!” Jaxon stared blankly at the tall, striking man whose commanding aura didn’t diminish in the slightest, even when walking beside their formidable captain.

A man who could earn their captain’s approval and be brought directly into The Vault.

It was practically a given that this was the man she had chosen for life.

He pondered for a moment before speaking. “The captain is the captain. Since he’s her man, let’s just call him the Second-in-Command p>

One operative scratched his head. “Second-in-Command? That doesn’t sound right p>

Another nodded with grave seriousness. “Let’s call him the Thief. He slipped in and stole our captain when we weren’t looking. What else is he but a thief p>

“Yeah! Exactly! That sneaky bastard p>

Serena led Nicholas straight into The Nexus.

An entire wall was dedicated to colossal monitors, flashing with scrolling data and encrypted maps.

A few technicians sitting at the main

console

saw Serena enter and

immediately stood up to respectfully greet her.

Serena waved them off. “Everyone out p>

The technicians bowed and swiftly filed out of the room.

The door clicked shut.

Serena pulled a black, micro hard drive from her canvas bag and hooked it up to the mainframe.

As her fingers danced across the

console, she explained, “The

equipment here is the most

Cootel net

advanced on the planet.” t

.net>

“The firewall runs on an independent, top-tier closed network p>

“Reading Grandma Aria’s data here guarantees Obsidian Sun won’t detect a damn thing p>

She bypassed the primary ports and linked the drive directly to the core.

Her fingers flew across the keyboard so fast they were a blur.

Lines of complex code cascaded down the monitors in a frenzy.

Nicholas sat down beside her, watching a block of firewall code trigger the moment the drive connected.

He narrowed his eyes slightly. “This firewall… it’s quite ancient p>

Serena didn’t pause her typing,

offering ne

à soft hum. “It’s Elyndor’s et

top-secret military firewall from thirty years ago p>

“Even for three decades old, the architecture is brilliant p>

She figured Woodrow “Woody” Finch had coded it.

Woody was her hacking mentor and one of Grandma Aria’s closest friends.

To build a firewall of this magnitude thirty years ago was legendary.

Still, it would take her a few minutes to crack it.

About five minutes later.

The impenetrable thirty-year-old firewall shattered under Serena’s assault.