The black SUV hummed quietly as it tore down the highway, leaving the violet-stained skyline of the city in the rearview mirror.
In the passenger seat, Elias was vibrating with manic energy, rapidly tapping away on the encrypted tablet Catrin had given him. He was muttering equations under his breath, completely oblivious to the fact that he had just been broken out of a high-security asylum.
Graves drove in rigid, terrified silence.
In the back, Nico was fast asleep, his head resting on Catrin’s lap.
Catrin gently stroked her son’s reddish-brown hair with one hand. In her other hand, she held her phone. Her thumb was flying across the screen.
She had exactly thirteen days, a few hours, and 1.1 billion dollars left.
Time to go shopping.
She opened an encrypted channel to a private luxury concierge service that catered exclusively to the ultra-wealthy.
"This is Catrin Briar," she typed rapidly. "I need an immediate, full-catalog buyout."
The representative on the other end replied almost instantly.
Ma’am? What do you mean by full catalog?
"I mean everything," Catrin typed, her eyes cold and focused. "I need premium winter coats, thermal wear, waterproof boots, and daily clothing. I need it in every single size from a four-year-old boy all the way up to an adult male. Five hundred sets of each size. I also need women’s tactical gear, silk loungewear, and luxury bedding. Empty your distribution warehouses. Send it to the temporary storage facility I just leased at the base of the mountains."
Ma’am, that is millions of dollars in inventory. The logistics of moving that today...
"I am adding a ten-million-dollar expediting fee. Have it there in three hours or I cancel the order."
...Right away, Ms. Briar.
Catrin swiped out of the chat and immediately called the executive chef of L’Aura, the city’s most exclusive three-Michelin-star restaurant.
"Chef Henri. Catrin Briar," she said softly, not wanting to wake Nico.
"Ah, Mrs. Vance! It is an honor," the chef’s bright voice came through the speaker. "Do you need a reservation for this evening?"
"No. I need to buy out your kitchen," Catrin said. "I want your staff to cook everything you have in your walk-in freezers. Every Wagyu steak, every lobster tail, every truffle risotto. Box it in thermal containers. I will send a freight truck to your back alley in two hours."
The chef laughed nervously.
"Is this a joke, madame? We have enough food to feed a banquet of five hundred people."
"I am wiring two million dollars to the restaurant’s account right now," Catrin replied smoothly. "Keep the change as a tip for the kitchen staff. Start cooking."
She hung up before he could argue.
In her past life, she had spent the apocalypse chewing on dry, moldy protein bars while freezing in a subway tunnel. This time, she was going to eat Michelin-star steak while the world burned outside her window.
Because her Infinite Spatial Dimension froze time completely, whatever went in hot, stayed hot forever. If she bought a thousand fresh pizzas right now, she could pull a steaming, perfectly gooey slice out of her inventory five years into the apocalypse.
"Hey, boss?" Elias peeked over the seat, his blue eyes wide. "If we’re heading to the mountains, where is the mecha-fortress? The schematics say this thing weighs over ten thousand tons. You can’t exactly tow it with an SUV."
Catrin glanced at him.
"The fortress has already been paid for."
Elias blinked. "Paid for?"
"Three billion dollars," Catrin said simply.
Graves’s eyes flicked toward her through the rearview mirror.
Elias stared at her. "You spent three billion dollars on that thing?"
"On the Project Ark prototype," Catrin corrected. "The money bought the fortress. The government simply decided they wanted to take possession of it before I could."
Elias slowly lowered his tablet.
"So that’s why we were rushing?"
"Partly."
He looked at her for another second.
"Then where is it?"
Catrin’s lips curved slightly.
"Somewhere the government can’t reach."
Elias frowned, clearly trying to figure out what that meant.
Catrin didn’t elaborate.
She wasn’t about to explain her Infinite Spatial Dimension to him on a highway.
Graves glanced in the rearview mirror again, clearly wondering the exact same thing. Neither of them questioned why she was doing this. When a billionaire throws around this much money and acts with this much certainty, you don’t ask questions. You just hold on for the ride.
"Don’t worry about the logistics, Elias," Catrin said calmly. "Just focus on the hydroponics grid. Can you get it yielding fresh crops within a week?"
"With the quantum core? Easy," Elias scoffed, turning back to his tablet. "I could grow watermelons in the middle of a nuclear winter."
"Good." Catrin looked out the window. "Graves, take the next exit. We need to make a pit stop at a warehouse before we head up the mountain."
An hour later, Graves pulled the SUV into the massive, empty parking lot of a commercial storage facility at the base of the mountains.
Lined up at the loading docks were six massive freight trucks.
Catrin stepped out of the SUV, leaving the men and a sleeping Nico in the car. She walked into the warehouse and pulled down the heavy steel rolling door behind her, locking herself inside.
The warehouse was packed to the ceiling.
Pallets of premium toddler milk formula, nutrient powders, and imported fruit snacks for Nico.
Mountains of cardboard boxes filled with luxury clothing in every size.
Hundreds of thermal crates radiating heat, packed with freshly cooked gourmet meals from five different high-end restaurants she had bought out on the drive.
Generators. Solar panels. Medical supplies. High-end gaming consoles, thousands of downloaded movies, and luxury bath bombs.
Catrin stood in the center of the room. The sheer volume of it would take a normal crew three days to load.
She just raised her hand.
Store.
A massive, rushing vacuum of wind whipped through the warehouse.
WHOOSH.
In a fraction of a second, the entire warehouse was stripped bare. Every single box, every pallet, every thermal crate... gone.
Catrin closed her eyes and looked into her mental grid.
The infinite white space was no longer empty. It was beautifully, flawlessly organized. She had mentally separated it into zones. The hot food hovered in one corner, steam still visibly rising off the containers, completely frozen in time. The pallets of water and formula formed a neat tower next to the medical supplies.
And looming in the center of it all, waiting patiently, was the pitch-black Project Ark mecha-fortress.
The three-billion-dollar prototype she had fought to acquire was finally hers.
Catrin let out a slow, satisfied breath. She had done it.
She walked back out to the SUV, her hands empty, looking perfectly composed.
Graves stared at her from the driver’s seat, then looked at the empty freight trucks driving away.
"Where did the cargo go?"
"It’s secured," Catrin said, buckling her seatbelt. "Drive up the mountain, Graves. We have a home to build."
The fifty-acre plot of land was located at the very peak of a private mountain road. It was a massive, flat expanse of cleared dirt, surrounded by towering pine trees and sheer cliff drops. It was utterly isolated, highly defensible, and absolutely perfect.
Graves parked the SUV in the center of the dirt lot and cut the engine.
They all stepped out into the crisp mountain air. Nico, finally awake, held tightly to Catrin’s hand, rubbing his eyes.
"Okay," Elias said, spinning around in a circle, looking at the empty dirt lot. He adjusted his glasses. "The view is great. The air is clean. But we have a minor problem, boss. There’s no bunker."
"Step back," Catrin ordered.
She guided Nico, Elias, and Graves to the very edge of the tree line, a safe distance away from the center of the clearing.
"Mommy, what are we doing?" Nico asked, tilting his head.
"Mommy got you a new house, baby," Catrin smiled, her green eyes flashing. "Watch."
Catrin stepped forward. She extended her hand toward the massive, empty dirt lot. She didn’t just need to pull the fortress out of her spatial dimension; she needed to anchor it to the earth.
She dug deep into the humming energy in her chest, visualising the towering titanium structure.
Retrieve.
The air pressure violently dropped. A shockwave of displaced air blasted outward, flattening the tall grass and sending Elias stumbling backward.
CRASH!
The ground violently shook like an earthquake.
Out of thin air, Project Ark slammed into the earth.
It was breathtaking. A three-story-tall, heavily armored cube of sleek black titanium and reinforced, one-way mirrored glass. It looked like a monolith dropped from space. The massive, heavy-duty transport treads crushed deep into the mountain dirt, anchoring the fortress. Sleek weapon turrets lay dormant on the roof, and solar-absorption panels lined the armored sides.
"Holy..." Graves choked out, falling to his knees. He stared at the impossible structure, completely losing his mind. "How... where did..."
Elias didn’t speak. His jaw was practically on the floor. He slowly walked forward, pressing his hands against the freezing black titanium hull, looking at Catrin as if she were a literal deity.
He didn’t care how she did it. He didn’t care about the physics. He was just in love with the tech.
"It’s... it’s perfect," Elias whispered, tracing the metal.
Catrin walked up to the massive, seamless black wall that served as the main entrance. She placed her bare palm flat against the metal.
BZZZT.
A ring of blue light scanned her handprint.
A smooth, mechanical voice echoed from hidden speakers around the perimeter.
[Biometric scan confirmed. Genetic signature recognized.]
Catrin waited.
She expected the next words to identify her as the authorized owner of the Project Ark prototype.
Instead, the mechanical voice continued.
[Creator authorization confirmed.]
Catrin’s brow furrowed.
Creator?
Then the voice spoke again.
[Welcome, Supreme Creator Catrin.]
Catrin froze.
That wasn’t in the specifications.
She had spent three billion dollars acquiring the Project Ark prototype. She had expected the fortress to recognize her as its owner, not...
"Supreme Creator?"
Elias’s confused voice came from behind her.
Catrin glanced over her shoulder.
"I don’t know," she admitted.
Elias stared at her.
"You don’t know?"
"No."
For the first time since retrieving the fortress, Catrin looked genuinely unsettled.
She turned back toward the glowing scanner.
There was nothing in the specifications about a Creator authorization.
And she certainly hadn’t created Project Ark.
Before she could investigate further, the massive titanium doors hissed, heavy locking mechanisms disengaging with a series of satisfying clicks.
The doors slid apart, revealing a brightly lit, pristine, high-tech interior that looked more like a luxury penthouse than a doomsday bunker.
[Quantum Core is online. Hydroponic systems dormant. Automated defense grid on standby. Awaiting your command.]
Catrin stepped inside, the warm, climate-controlled air washing over her. She looked back at Elias and Graves, who were still staring in sheer disbelief.
"Elias, get to the basement and boot up the hydroponics," Catrin ordered, slipping off her blazer and tossing it onto a plush leather sofa. "Graves, I need you on the roof. Commander Jax and the Aegis mercenaries will be arriving in less than an hour. I want perimeter patrols established before the sun goes down."
Graves swallowed hard, finally finding his voice.
"Yes, ma’am."
Nico happily ran past them, his light-up sneakers squeaking on the polished steel floor.
"Wow! It’s so big!"
Catrin smiled, watching her son spin around in the center of the impenetrable living room.
They were safe.
But high above the fortress, completely unnoticed by the humans below, the violet aurora in the sky suddenly pulsed.
Deep in the vacuum of space, a massive, shadow-winged alien conqueror opened his glowing golden eyes.
The thirteen-day countdown had officially begun.