The man in white armor did not sleep.Raymond knew this before Mercer finished tracing the signal.“He is moving,” Mercer said quietly. “Not Helix tracked. Off grid.”Raymond sat on the floor of the safehouse, back against cold concrete, eyes closed. His ribs burned with every breath.“He should be,” Raymond replied. “He is scared.”Lira leaned against the wall near the entrance, weapon resting loosely in her hands. “Scared people either hide or talk.”Raymond opened his eyes. “He will talk.”The Core stirred, cautious and watchful.Anomaly propagation detected, it whispered. Mercy event generating uncontrolled narrative vectors.Raymond almost smiled. “You call it uncontrolled. I call it human.”Mercer expanded the holo-map. A single point blinked softly, weaving through lower residential sectors.“He is not going home,” Mercer said. “He is circling.”“Then he is being watched,” Lira replied.Raymond pushed himself upright slowly. His legs trembled, but he did not let himself sit bac

The first question was small.It appeared beneath a Helix announcement, buried in a comment thread that was supposed to be filtered automatically.Why did the implants fail at the same time.Helix deleted it within seconds.Three minutes later, the question reappeared somewhere else.Why did the override match a scheduled maintenance window.Mercer watched the data crawl across his screen, eyes sharp despite the exhaustion pulling at his face.“They are chasing sparks,” he said. “Too many to stamp out.”Raymond lay on a narrow cot nearby, breathing shallow but steady. His side was wrapped tight. Blood had soaked through once. Lira had rebandaged it without ceremony.“They always think questions are harmless,” Raymond said. “Until they connect.”Lira leaned against the wall, listening to the distant thrum of aerial patrols. “Helix just issued a clarification.”Mercer pulled it up.A new spokesperson. Softer tone. Carefully chosen words.“Recent service interruptions were the result of