Marcel stared down at the crisp black ink of the official signature block. The stamp printed on the bottom right corner of the death certificate read Dr. Samuel Cross."I know that name," Lily said quietly, her hand shaking as she reached out to touch the paper. "He was my doctor. He used to give me those tiny wooden puzzles whenever I got sick.""He treated you when you were seven," Marcel said, his voice dropping into a register so low it was almost unrecognizable. "I remember mom bringing you to his clinic on 4th Street. But she never let me step inside the room with you. I had to wait in the hall.""I thought she was just being protective," Lily whispered."She wasn't protecting you from the cold," Marcel said, his knuckles turning white as he gripped the desk edge. "She was keeping me away from him."Marcus tapped furiously on his secondary tablet, pulling up medical registry logs. "Cross officially retired twelve years ago, but his medical license was renewed every three years t

Marcel stood rooted to the wooden floorboards, his pistol hanging at his side. Twenty years of funeral flowers, silent anniversaries, and phantom grief hardened into a wall between him and the woman standing five feet away. He couldn't move his boots. He couldn't raise his arms.Lily remained buried in their mother's shoulders, her violent sobs shaking them both. Eleanor Kane held her daughter like a lifeline, her knuckles white against Lily's dark coat, her eyes never leaving Marcel's face."Marcel, please," Eleanor rasped, her voice cracking under the weight of the room. "I know what you're thinking.""Don't apologize yet," Marcel said. His voice was bone-dry, entirely stripped of inflection. "Tell me what happened."Eleanor took a trembling breath, smoothing Lily's hair before gently stepping back. She wiped her face with the back of a bruised hand. "After the fire at the research lab, I found your father. He was alive, Marcel. Severely burned,

Marcel stared at the crimson text glowing on his phone screen, his fingers rigid around the glass casing.{PRIMARY SUBJECT IDENTIFIED: LILY KANE}"No," Marcel said, his voice quiet, flat, and absolute. "No, that's impossible.""Marcel, I don't know what that means," Lily said, backing away from the open steel cabinet, her hands trembling against her sides. "I've never seen that screen. I've never touched your phone. I never agreed to any of this!""Don't take the bait," Aurora said, descending the concrete cellar stairs with her sidearm raised. "It's a psychological trigger. The system gave you prompts for six months to make you feel like the center of the board. Now it's changing the rules to make you panic.""Marcus, check the archive drives," Marcel ordered, his heart thumping against his ribs as he stepped between Lily and the screen. "Right now."Marcus knelt on the cold cellar floor, plugging a diagnostic cable straight int

Adrian’s voice still rattled through the laboratory intercom, the metallic echo bouncing off the cold concrete walls."Where is he?" Marcel roared into the speaker, slamming his fist against the console screen until the glass fractured. "Where is my father, Adrian!"The monitor flickered, but Adrian didn't answer through the feed."Marcel, stop!" Eleanor pleaded, grabbing his arm with trembling hands. "He’s pulling you into a maze! Adrian has spent twenty years feeding us half-truths to keep us moving where he wants us!""He said Dad is down here!" Marcel snapped, turning on her, his breathing heavy and ragged. "I spent my entire life believing he died in a fire! I am not walking out those doors if he's fifty feet beneath our boots!"The heavy steel security door at the far end of the lab disengaged with a loud pneumatic hiss. Adrian stepped through the threshold alone. He was drenched in sweat, his tactical jacket torn at the shoulder, but his hands were empty and held low."The faci

Marcel stood frozen in the center of the subterranean garage, his fingers crushing the piece of paper."He's playing you, Marcel!" Marcus shouted, waving his tablet frantically. "Look at the handwriting! It's designed to make you snap and sprint straight into an ambush!""Look around, Marcus," Marcel said, his voice dropping into a dangerous, quiet register. "Look at the floor."Marcus paused, his chest heaving as his eyes swept the empty concrete bay."There's no broken glass," Marcel said, pacing slowly around the open doors of the SUV. "No spent brass, no scuff marks from boots, no blood. The perimeter alarm didn't trip. Whoever walked in here didn't force a lock. They were let in, or they had the master bypass key."Marcus immediately sat on the bumper, pulling up the garage security logs. "Give me thirty seconds." He tapped through the interface, his expression darkening. "The last sixty minutes of feed were overwritten with a static