Chapter 4 - The Art of Disguise
For the next week, the safehouse became a training ground. Under Marcus’s strict supervision, I forced myself to walk, to stretch, to rebuild the core strength that the emergency surgery had shattered. Every movement was a battle against my own pain receptors, but every time I felt like collapsing, I pictured Leo’s tiny, fragile hand in the incubator, and I pushed through.
Marcus was not just a medic; he was a man who had spent years in the deep cover operations of the military. He understood how to disappear.
"First rule of hiding in plain sight," Marcus said, tossing a box of cheap, dark hair dye onto the table. "You don't try to look like someone else. You try to look like someone no one notices. Evelyn Cross is a high-society fashion icon. You wear designer silk, your hair is platinum blonde, and you carry yourself like a queen. We need to kill Evelyn."
An hour later, I stood in front of a cracked mirror in the bathroom.
My long, beautiful blonde hair was gone, cut into a jagged, uneven bob and dyed a dull, muddy brown. I wore no makeup, highlighting the dark, bruised hollows under my eyes and the pale, hollow look of my cheeks. I wore an oversized, faded gray security uniform—the standard attire for the night-shift cleaning crew of Ashford Tower.
I looked like a ghost. I looked invisible.
"Good," Marcus said, standing in the doorway. "Now, the logistics. The cleaning crew enters through the basement loading dock at 11:00 PM. They scan their IDs, but the night supervisor is a guy named Pete. He’s lazy, and he spends his shift watching sports on his phone. I’ve cloned the barcode of a disgruntled cleaner who quit last week. It will get you through the turnstile."
"And Julian’s office?" I asked, adjusting the heavy utility belt around my waist.
"The executive elevator requires an active biometric scan or a master key card," Marcus said, handing me a small, black electronic device. "This is a frequency jammer. It will cycle through the building's maintenance codes. It won't open the door, but it will cause a temporary system glitch for exactly ninety seconds. The security team will think it's a routine server reboot. You have that long to get to the private stairs."
I took the device, my heart rate accelerating. The risk was immense. If I was caught, Julian wouldn't hesitate to have me permanently silenced, and this time, there would be no hospital, no Dr. Chen, and no second chance.
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"Evelyn," Marcus said, his face grave as he looked at me. "If this goes south, you run. You don't try to save the files. You don't try to play the hero. You survive. Understood?"
"I am already dead to the world, Marcus," I said quietly, looking at my unfamiliar reflection in the mirror. "There is nothing left for him to kill."
