2026-01-17 23:48:06
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Chapter 20: The Renovation
The second property was a four-story commercial building on Geary Boulevard, currently gutted down to the studs and crawling with construction workers in hard hats and high-vis vests.I spent three days conducting surveillance from a bubble tea shop across the street, nursing drinks I didn't want while my Enhanced Multitasking ran on all cylinders. One track watched the building. Another analyzed construction permits I'd pulled from public records. A third tracked Volkov's surveillance patterns. A fourth messaged with Elena about her warning document, helping her compile case studies while pretending to be a normal customer checking his phone.The construction company was legitimate. Fully permitted, bonded, insured. They were converting the old building into modern office spaces, the kind of renovation that was eating San Francisco block by block. They had no idea they were providing cover for evidence hidden twenty-three years ago.The crew worked day shift, 7 AM to 5 PM. Volkov's p
Chapter 19: Yuki's Line
Yuki was waiting when I got back to the Daly City safe house.She had a laptop open, a bottle of scotch on the table, and an expression that said we needed to talk. The kind of expression that usually preceded bad news."I've been monitoring police scanners," she said before I could speak. "Recognized the Haight address from your research. I know what happened."I dropped the backpack on the table and sank into a chair. Every muscle in my body ached. The split lip had stopped bleeding but my hands were still shaking."Margaret?""Alive. Minor shock, no injuries. Police are treating it as a home invasion." She nodded at the backpack. "What did you find?"I opened the bag and spread the contents across the table. Four folders of documents. A dozen USB drives. My father's handwritten letter. Twenty-five years of evidence that people had killed to suppress.Yuki picked up the first folder and started reading. Her expression shifted as she processed what she was seeing—account numbers, wir
Chapter 18: Trapped
I was trapped in a basement with evidence I couldn't leave behind and an elderly woman in danger upstairs.My Enhanced Multitasking split my attention four ways: one track planning escape routes through the basement's narrow windows, one track listening to the conversation above, one track preparing for combat with nothing but a knife and desperation, one track managing the panic that kept trying to claw its way up my throat.The voices upstairs were clear enough to parse through the floorboards. Two men, both armed based on the subtle sounds of weapons shifting against holsters. They weren't being overtly threatening yet—they'd posed as city inspectors with questions about property safety, structural concerns, the usual bullshit that sounds official if you don't think about it too hard.Margaret wasn't buying it. I could hear the fear in her voice, but also the steel. She'd been dealing with these vultures for fifteen years."Is anyone else in the house, Mrs. Chen?"The question hung
Chapter 17: The First Property
The first of my father's documented properties was a three-story Victorian in the Haight-Ashbury, painted in faded blues and yellows that probably looked charming in the 1970s. Now it just looked tired.I surveilled the building from a coffee shop across the street, my Enhanced Multitasking ability running on all cylinders. One track watched the house. Another researched the owner. A third analyzed the building's structure from public records. A fourth monitored the movements of a gray sedan parked down the block—Volkov's people, rotating shifts every four hours.They had cameras too. Security feeds from adjacent buildings, angled to cover the Victorian's entrances. Patient. Professional. They'd been watching this place for years, waiting for an opportunity.The owner was an elderly Chinese-American woman named Margaret Chen. Seventy-eight years old, widowed, lived alone. She'd owned the property since 1987 and had refused every buyout offer for decades. Property tax records showed sh
Chapter 16: Splitting Focus
I came back from Ocean Beach to find the safe house in chaos.Jerome was seizing on the couch, his body rigid, foam at the corners of his mouth. Yuki's medic was holding him down while shouting instructions to Yuki, who was on the phone with someone speaking rapid Cantonese."What happened?" I pushed into the room."Internal bleeding worsened," the medic said without looking up. "He's going into shock. We're out of time."The seizure stopped as suddenly as it started. Jerome went limp, his breathing shallow and ragged. The medic checked his pulse, his pupils, cursed under his breath."He needs a real hospital. Real doctors. Real equipment." He looked at me. "Now. Not forty-eight hours from now. Right fucking now, or he dies tonight."Yuki hung up the phone. "I can get him to SF General anonymously. Drop him at the ER, disappear. They'll treat him as a John Doe.""And then what? He wakes up surrounded by cops asking questions?""He wakes up alive." Her voice was sharp. "That's more tha
Chapter 15: Elena's Warning
I called Elena the next morning using the number from her business card.She answered on the first ring, like she'd been waiting. "I wondered when you'd reach out.""I need to talk. In person.""Ocean Beach. Dawn tomorrow. Walk along the shore—it's deserted that early except for surfers and insomniacs." A pause. "And Marcus? Don't use any powers between now and then. You can't afford it."She hung up before I could respond.I spent the rest of that day and night helping Yuki coordinate Jerome's medical situation, but my mind kept drifting to the inherited debts tab, to the numbers that represented sins I hadn't committed but was apparently paying for anyway.Dawn came gray and cold, fog rolling off the Pacific like the ocean was trying to swallow the city. I parked near the ruins of the old Sutro Baths and walked down to the beach, sand crunching under my boots, the sound of waves drowning out everything else.Elena was already there, a dark figure against the lighter gray of the sky.
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