The Cipher of St. Jude

Rain lashed against the stained-glass windows of St. Jude’s Academy for Exceptional Youth, a secluded, gothic prep school perched high on the cliffs of New England. To the outside world, St. Jude’s was an elite breeding ground for future world leaders, tech prodigies, and diplomats. To the eight students who belonged to the secret 'Archive Council,' it was something else entirely: a cover for an ancient, black-market intelligence vault hidden three floors beneath the library.

At seventeen, Clara Vance was the Council’s premier cryptographer and safecracker. She was quiet, hyper-observant, and possessed a eidetic memory for structural blueprints. Unlike her wealthy classmates, Clara was at St. Jude’s on a forged scholarship—a ghost surviving in a playground for billionaires.