POV: Maya SantosThree days before publication, I was at the Neural Research Institute reviewing legal documentation. Open-source licensing language, public domain certification, patent trust transfer documents. It was a lot of paperwork and most of it was boring as hell but it had to be perfect.Priya and Dr. Kimani were working through the presentation structure in the conference room. I could hear them through the door. Priya's presentation would cover James Cole's biography and research history, Bernard Lau's audit findings, Robert Cross's corroborating testimony, the patent trust history, the open-source declaration. And then a final section.That one was personal.It’s about her own research theft and why this publication mattered. Dr. Kimani kept saying that was the most important section. And Priya kept avoiding practicing it.I got that.Making something professional deeply personal in front of an international livestream audience. That's terrifying.I checked my email around

POV: Priya NairDr. Rosamund Osei. I found her at like two AM.She’s seventy-one, Nigerian-British. Emeritus professor at the University of Edinburgh.The patent trust documentation had three witness signatures, Robert Cross, Bernard Ashby who was dead, and initials R.M.O.Rosamund Maria Osei.She'd emailed Dr. Kimani's office three days ago asking about the publication. The assistant had passed it to me as routine. I'd missed it. But the system hadn't.I pulled her academic profile, and damn, she had a distinguished career. A long list of awards, hundreds of students and an extensive publication record. But none of it mentioned neural interface research.Until I dug deeper.I found a visiting researcher appointment in the late nineties. Same laboratory where James Cole worked. She'd contributed to the foundational mathematical framework, specifically the error-correction algorithms that made the technology stable.Theodore's people had removed her name from the documentation to simp

POV: Maya SantosPublication day.We were in the Neural Research Institute main hall with over three hundred people in the room. Forty thousand more watching the global livestream.I sat in the third row next to Ethan. Robert Cross was in front of us, Margaret beside him. Dr. Osei was in the front row, Bernard Lau in the sixth row, his first public statement in twenty-two years. Catherine was on Ethan's other side. Marcus, Lily, Jennifer, and Adrian were behind us.Emma had asked to come. And I'd said yes. She was in the back.The presentation started at ten AM. Dr. Kimani opened with scientific context, talked about neural interface research. She explained why James Cole's work mattered and why it had been kept from the scientific community for so long.Then Bernard Lau stood up and walked to the podium. He looked visibly relieved to finally be saying this out loud. He presented the audit findings, confirmed James's independent development. Then he explained how he'd documented every

POV: Maya SantosOne week later I went to Daniel's sentencing review hearing at the Federal courthouse. Ethan stayed at Cole Industries. He'd decided not to attend and sent me instead.The hearing took ninety minutes. The prosecution incorporated the Harmon corrections, the three misclassified transactions properly attributed to Harmon's deliberate trap, Daniel's genuine embezzlement which was around twenty-two point seven million, not twenty-five, all combined with the Theodore cooperation credit, his sentence was formally reduced.The new sentence was twelve years total. With time served, he'd be released in approximately nine years. He'd be thirty-nine. Baby Catherine would be ten.The prosecution read Daniel's original guilty plea statement. His own words accepting full responsibility for fraud, embezzlement, conspiracy, kidnapping, attempted murder. The sentencing review reduced the quantum of fraud by ten percent. It didn't change the plea, didn't change his guilty status.Dani

POV: Priya NairI called Ethan the morning after I talked to Jennifer, around seven AM.He answered on the second ring."Hey Priya. What's wrong?""Nothing's wrong. But there's something I need to tell you about the system.""Okay?"I could hear Maya in the background asking who it was."Your Father built a dormant sub-protocol into the system. It didn't activate until all primary mission chains were complete.""What does that mean?""It means your revenge campaign, Adrian's Morrison network takedown, Jennifer's corruption exposure, my Whitmore justice, all of those had to be finished first before this activated.""And now they are.""Yeah. The sub-protocol activated when I pressed publish on the open-source release. I didn't notice it at first because I thought the system had terminated completely. But there was one more thing waiting."Silence on his end.I could hear him thinking."What's the mission?""Your father's death certificate. Right now it lists accidental death. Single ve