2026-08-12 21:45:09
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83. The Rooftop
Chris left the apartment building through the back entrance.He had used the main entrance coming in. He used the service door going out; it opened onto a narrow alley that ran parallel to the building and came out on a different street entirely from the one he normally used. He walked the alley without hurrying, came out onto the parallel street, and walked two blocks before turning toward a bus terminal he had identified earlier that week but never actually used.Different stop. Different route. Different direction from the one he normally used.He got on the bus.He watched the streets for the first few minutes the way you watch when you are looking for something following you, not obviously, not with his head turned, just the peripheral awareness of someone who had started to understand what it felt like to be tracked and was making it harder.Nothing flagged.He sat back and let the bus carry him toward the hotel.He showered and changed when he got back to the room.He was sit
82. CCTV
Chris slept better than he had expected.The hotel bed was narrow, and the pillow was too soft, and the air conditioning made a faint clicking sound every twelve minutes. None of it mattered. He was safe, and nobody knew which room he was in, and his body apparently found that sufficient because he went under properly and woke up once at 3 a.m to drink some water, checked the door was locked, and slept again until just past eight.He spent Saturday morning in the room.He watched two more YouTube videos on blockchain infrastructure and took four pages of notes. He checked the Binance app, BTC was steady, the portfolio sitting exactly where it had been the previous day, give or take market breathing. He ordered breakfast from the restaurant downstairs, paid in cash, and ate it at the desk.He didn't check the group chat until mid-morning. Everyone was off school for the weekend. A few messages were from Jordan about the job; he had been asked to cover an extra shift on Sunday and want
81. Check Your Back
Chris checked the time when he finished eating.It was already one in the afternoon.He picked up his phone and opened the group chat.“How is campus? I am on my way in.” He sent itHe typed it casually, the way someone genuinely heading to school would type it. He wanted to see what had happened back in school before deciding how much to reveal.Responses trickled in over two minutes.Zoe said it was quiet. Caleb said Bennett had given them a reading assignment. Then Jordan's message came through, longer than the others.“Tyler came around this morning and somehow noticed your absence at once. Asked where you were. I told him I had no idea. He just nodded and walked off with his people. Seemed weird tbh. I think they are up to something." The reply came inChris read it twice.He switched to a private message with Jordan.“When he asked and got the answer, what did he look like? Surprised? Annoyed?” Chris asked himJordan's reply came quickly.“That is the thing. He was not surprise
80. Off The Radar
Chris got into a bus heading home from after leaving Sandra’s officeChris came off the bus two streets before his apartment.He walked the last stretch on foot, taking the longer way around, coming at the building from the opposite direction to the one he normally used. He slowed as the building came into view and stopped at the corner, looking at it from across the street without moving toward it.He scanned the front to scan for people around.No unfamiliar cars parked in front. No figure standing with the practised casualness of someone who was actually watching.Nothing had changed. He heaved a sighHe crossed.He stood outside his door, key in hand, and looked at the lock before using it. No scratches around the keyhole. No sign that anyone had tried the door.He inserted the key and turned it.He opened the door with one foot, put pressure on it slowly, and stepped in one foot first before following with the other. He closed the door behind him and locked it.He stood still.H
79. Stay In Silence
Chris was almost at the door when Sandra spoke again."One more thing," she said.He turned."The bus," she said. "Starting Monday, you are not taking it anymore."Chris looked at her."If someone is tracking your movements, the bus route is already compromised," she said. "Same stop, same time, same route, it is the easiest thing in the world to follow." She set her mug down. "I am going to arrange a chauffeur. Registered in my name, not yours. He picks you up from the guesthouse every morning." Sandra said"And takes me to school?" Chris said."Takes you to a bus station," Sandra said. "Not the school gate, a station two or three blocks away. You walk from there. No car pulling up to Virell's gate, no driver who can be identified, no pattern that connects your pickup point to where you are sleeping." She paused. "When school closes, you walk back to the station. The car picks you up there and brings you back to the hotel." Sandra explainedChris thought through it.Clean. No vi
78. Time To Leave The Radar
Sandra looked at the screenshot on the desk for a moment, then set it aside and looked at Chris directly."We have been focused on James," she said. "Rightly. But I don't want you to lose sight of something."Chris waited."The photograph in that envelope," she said. "There is a ninety per cent chance it was you. Your face, your address, your building, something that identifies you physically and locates you." She paused. "Which means whoever Tyler hired does not just know where James goes to school." "They know where I sleep," Chris said."Possibly, or they are finding you," Sandra said. "And we don't know what they were hired to do with that information." She looked at him. "Surveillance is one thing. But Tyler is running out of clean options. The review hearing is two weeks away. Whatever he is planning needs to happen before that, and he has already tried the official channels, and they have not held." She paused, and her expression shifted slightly. "I want you to think c
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