All Chapters of Legacy Protocol: Chapter 1
- Chapter 10
22 chapters
LIVING. MISSION QUEUE: 1.
Arin opened his eyes to a ceiling that smelled of cedar and antiseptic, the pattern on it a carved geometry he’d seen only in wealthy men’s nightmares. He had the sudden, absurd sense of standing at the edge of the world and finding a stranger’s shoes on his feet.For a long, hungry second, he did not know his name. Panic arrived like a cold animal, claws under his ribs, until something metallic and patient spoke inside him.PROTOCOL INITIALIZED. IDENTIFICATION: ARIN VOSS.STATUS: LIVING. MISSION QUEUE: 1.Arin jerked, heart thudding. The voice was neither male nor female — it had the brittle calm of a machine that had learned sarcasm for efficiency. He pushed himself upright and tasted copper.Pictures lined the table by the bed: an older man with silver hair and eyes like a hawk, a woman whose smile did not reach the corners of her mouth, and a young woman posed like a statue — Evelyn Daro Voss. The surname buzzed in him like an old key.“Mr. Voss,” said a nurse, soft as a practiced
REBORN IN THE WRONG HOUSE
“You must be uncomfortable,” she said. Her eyes were colder than the rest of her face; when they landed on Arin there was a flare of something almost like recognition — not of him personally, but of an expected performance. “You should rest. The family physician will speak to you later.”Arin wanted to ask who she was beyond the picture frames — whether she had bought the life around her or been smothered by it. But each question invited an answer that might be a trap. The Protocol suggested caution. SOCIAL RECOMMEND: ACCEPT HOSPITALITY. OBSERVE.He nodded. “Thank you.” The words were tiny concessions.Later, in the study, Lucan set a glass of something dark on the table and regarded him across the gulf of carved rosewood. He chose his words like a man with a ledger.“You will have heard the Protocol,” Lucan said. The single word landed like a coin. “You will also know, I think, that the Vosses run many things in this city. We have enemies who do not care about etiquette. You were luc
THE DARO GALA
Arin learned the house in pieces. Corridors were like a language he did not yet speak, full of subtle grammar: who smiled for whom, which portraits were left unrotated, which doors stayed closed. Lucan introduced him to the staff with the efficiency of a man assigning ranks. Everyone bowed. Everyone watched. The staff treated him with an odd mixture of curiosity and professional indifference, as if he were a new piece of furniture that might, at any time, be reclaimed by the estate.The Protocol narrated small facts into his skull, plain and unemotional. DAY 1. VOSS SHELTER: ACTIVE. TRUST BUILD: 2/5. It also supplied a list of skills, most of which he did not understand until he found reasons to use them. A simple interface presented itself as options: social calibration, basic surveillance, lock familiarity. He accepted what felt useful and left the rest unresolved.Evelyn watched him during meals. She sat like someone who had been trained to take up minimal space, which made her pre
MISSION UPDATE: PRIORITY INCREASED. INVESTIGATE CORIN MARR.
Arin found her in the conservatory, standing over a tray of small plants. She looked at him without surprise.“You looked through the archives,” she said.“I found a note,” he admitted. “Tessera. House 47.”She nodded, slow and resigned. “The Daros run several coded shipments. Tessera has been a word in their ledger for a while. People trade shards for leverage. If you were near House 47 you might have been a courier, a mark, or a target.”“Or collateral,” he said. It was a word he had not used aloud before. Saying it made the room smaller.“You need allies,” she said. “Not just in this house. People who know the docks, who move through those alleys without being marked.”Arin thought of Corvin, of Lucan’s network, of the strange careful people who kept the house functioning. He also thought of the man in the picture who had smiled like a hawk. He had to find a way to cross borders without making them bleed.The Protocol updated quietly. SUB-MISSION: IDENTIFY DARO CONTACTS. TIMEFRAME:
NIGHT WALKS AND SMALL LIES
Arin learned to measure the house by its silences. There were loud rooms where laughter or argument filled the air, and there were rooms that kept their edges sharp so no secret could hide inside. The conservatory was one of those quiet rooms. At night it smelled of damp earth and cut leaves. Evelyn came there when she needed a place with no audience.He found her the evening after the informant arrived. The sky had gone the bruised color of wet steel. The lamps threw narrow pools of light across the glass and the plants leaned into it as if they were living for one small warmth.“You still thinking about the docks?” she asked without looking up.He sat on the opposite bench and let his hands rest on his knees. Up close she moved like someone used to controlling people by waiting for the right pause. “All the time,” he said. “There are too many missing pieces.”She studied him as if reading a page with pencil marks. “You do not look like the man who belongs in my family portraits,” sh
THE PACKAGE
Arin kept his expression neutral. “Tattoo on the wrist. Lattice pattern.”The informant nodded. “They had a leader. He moved like he belonged to a place that paid well and did not ask questions. I followed to the alley. I saw a man drop a package, then the man fell into the water.”“Why tell us now?” Corvin asked.“Because the man the package belonged to is important,” the informant said. “He is on Lucan’s lists. He is dangerous to have alive and not under our eye.”Arin’s stomach shifted. Someone in the city had planned to make a delivery that would not be noticed. Someone had prepared men to watch the Voss route. That required money and planning. It also required inside knowledge.He needed to know who had hired the watchers. He needed to know where the Tessera had gone. He needed to know what a lattice tattoo meant and which hands wore it.Back at the manor, Arin let the questions sit with him like stones. That afternoon he took the long walk along the river and let the chatter of
THE LATTICE ROOM
Corvin drove them across the river in a car that smelled faintly of cheap cologne and older smoke. The city at night folded into itself, a ribbon of light and dark. Arin watched the way street vendors closed up and how men whose work never ended moved with a practiced calm. He did not feel safe. He felt alert in the way a man who has been pushed into water learns to swim before he breathes again.“You sure about this?” Corvin asked. His voice had that careful edge now, like a man speaking a truth he might later have to deny.Arin kept his reply simple. “I need to know where Tessera went.”They parked near a row of warehouses that had been converted into late-night clubs and private rooms. A brass plaque read THE LATTICE in worn letters. Above the door a neon sign buzzed out a pattern that looked almost like the tattoo the informant had described. Inside, the air was warm and the sound of soft music made the room feel like a single living thing. People spoke in low voices. Glasses clic
UNREGISTERED SIGNAL DETECTED.
Meran’s eyes sharpened. For a second the room lost its warmth. “Yes,” he said. “A man with a lattice wrist. He had a quick hand. If you see that mark on someone who works for the docks, and they look like they do not belong, ask them about a shipment called Tessera. Mention House 47.”Arin memorized the instruction. It was a thread to pull at. “Who paid for the watchers?”Meran shrugged and poured more drink into his own glass. “If I knew all the answers, I would be doing something more profitable than meeting old friends in private rooms. I take a cut of a cut. Ask the dockmaster. Ask the men who count crates. They will tell you what someone with money told them. If you want to chase a shadow, chase the paperwork. That is where men forget they are lying.”Arin felt the Protocol in his head, quiet and precise. NEW DATA: MERAN CONFIRMS LATTICE TATTOO AND VAREK. It suggested probability levels and recommended surveillance windows. The voice was useful. It was not affection. It never wou
PLEASURE
The house had moods. At night it could be cold and efficient, all varnish and rules. At noon it could be kind, with servants humming and the sun making the carpets glow. Tonight it felt dangerous in a different way. There was movement in the rooms that had nothing to do with the family: crates shifted, new faces walked the halls, and the Voss staff had the quiet of people holding their breath until someone else decided it was safe to exhale.Arin was halfway through a ledger when a soft knock came to his door. He did not expect visitors. Corvin had been clipped with errands and the Protocol hummed with a dozen logistical updates. He set the pen down and opened the door.She was in the doorway like a question with no punctuation. Tall, curved in the right places, wrapped in a dress the color of stormwater and silk. Her hair fell in a slow fall of black. Her eyes met his and smiled like someone who had a private joke with the world. She carried no luggage, only a scent that was not perf
MARIS
She rose then and stood close enough that he could see the fine hairs along her forearm. When she brushed by him, the scent of citrus and smoke wrapped around him. It was nothing crude. It was the way a memory lingers after someone leaves a room. He wanted to follow her out into the hall and ask questions until the sun came up. Instead he asked a smaller, truer one.“Do you ever trust men who work for houses?” he asked.Maris considered him for a long beat. “Sometimes,” she said. “But not the ones who pretend to be better than they are. I like the ones who know they are dangerous. They keep their eyes open.”There was tenderness in her words, the kind that did not pretend sentimentality. It made him want to be better and worse at the same time. He found himself leaning into the possibility of a thing he had not planned on carrying. He wanted to see whether she would be ally or blade.“Come to the gala,” she said. “If you want to find Varek, you should go where people pretend to be the