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Chapter 48- The inquiry
The first hearing wasn’t held in Raventon. Raventon was considered “too compromised,” “too emotional,” “too symbolically charged.” Instead, the federal environmental commission chose a windowless auditorium in Capitol District Nine, a place so architecturally plain it looked allergic to memory.Rows of metal chairs filled the room, bolted to the floor as if even seating arrangements feared protest. A long table stretched across the raised platform where the commissioners sat, stiff-backed, papers aligned with surgical precision.Noah stood at the edge of the room, eyes scanning everything. He wasn’t in handcuffs anymore, but the weight of surveillance clung to him like static. Two federal monitors shadowed him at all times formal, polite, expressionless. A concession to public pressure, they said. An “escort,” not a restraint.It still felt like a leash.He rubbed the thin scar on his wrist where the handcuffs had once cut in. They had given him clean clothes, a navy button-up, dark s
Chapter 47- The Break
The first crack didn’t appear in a courtroom or on a headline.It appeared in a comment section.Beneath a clipped, distorted video of Noah being dragged away a video cut to make him look arrogant, uncooperative, and dangerous, a grainy still frame froze on his face mid-turn. The caption read: “Eco-terrorist leader finally in custody.”The comments began the way they always did.Good. Lock him up.Should’ve arrested them all sooner.They poisoned their own town with panic.But halfway down, a single comment stuck like a shard of glass:For someone who supposedly did it for the fame, he looks terrified for someone else.Then another.Why is he the only one in cuffs when Luxport is the one who dumped poison into the water?Then another.Where’s the evidence that he faked anything? The barrels were real. The contamination is real. This doesn’t add up.One by one, the narrative started to shift. Not in a wave, but in tiny, stubborn drops wearing down a stone.By the time Mira uploaded Noa
Chapter 46-The prison Letters
Raventon felt smaller the day after Noah was taken.Not quieter silence was something the town understood, something it carried like a second skin. But this was different. This was the kind of smallness a place feels when it has been emptied, when the air is thinner because something essential has been removed.Mira walked the length of Main Street with her hood pulled low, not because she feared being recognized but because she feared being seen. The two were different now. Recognition was a headline; being seen was exposure. Every window she passed felt like an eye. Every street corner felt crowded with ghosts of the night before.Joey had left her at dawn, insisting he needed to retrieve whatever backups he could salvage before the security groups finished their sweep of town systems. Clara was in hiding somewhere on the outskirts, sheltering with a retired journalist who owed her a favor. Tess had gone dark whether by choice or by force, no one knew. The movement was scattered, fr
Chapter 45- The Arrest
Raventon didn’t wake when the black SUVs arrived.They didn’t need to.The town had long ago learned the language of footsteps that didn’t belong; the hush of engines that carried power, not mercy; the scent of authority arriving before dawn like a sickness.By the time the sun bruised the horizon, the streets were bordered with temporary barricades, bright floodlights, and men in gray tactical jackets bearing no insignia just a single embroidered patch: CSG.Contracted Security Group.Luxport’s mercenaries in everything but name.Noah saw them first from the motel window. He was tying his boots when a flash of movement caught his eye a convoy pulling into the parking lot. Heavy, silent, precise.“Mira,” he said, voice low, “we need to go. Now.”She froze mid-step, toothbrush still in hand, eyes flicking to the window. One look was enough. She spat into the sink, wiped her mouth, and grabbed the backpack.“The tapes?” she asked.“Inside,” Noah replied. “Bottom pocket.”“The canister s
Chapter 44- Mira's Betrayal
The footage went live at 11:47 p.m.Mira uploaded it to The Coalition’s channel with shaking hands while Noah watched through the motel window, eyes tracking the dark road like a sentry waiting for invasion. Outside, Raventon felt too quiet, an animal holding still before it bolts.The video was simple. No dramatic music. No commentary. Just visuals: barrels dragged from the sandbars, Tess listing serial numbers, the silver chemical sheen dissolving into the tide. Raw truth. Undressed. Unmarketed.Within minutes the views climbed from hundreds to thousands to tens of thousands. Comments poured in.“This is criminal.”“How long has this been happening?”“Where is the EPA?”“Luxport LIED?”Mira kept refreshing, her thumb jittering. “Good. Good. It’s spreading faster than their PR.”Noah didn’t respond. His silence had a new weight anticipation sharpened by dread.At 12:23 a.m., the Coalition group chat lit up.FROM: SAMUELSomeone leaked the footage to Luxport before we published. Their
Chapter 43- The Sea’s Evidence
They left the lighthouse with the canisters wrapped in tarps and tied down in the truck bed. Mira drove, the kind of driving that meant she trusted Noah to breathe beside her but not enough to let him drift back into silence. The recorder sat between them like a fragile animal.The rain softened to a mist by the time they reached the harbor lab, and for a moment it felt like Raventon was holding its breath, waiting for whatever came next.Inside, Tess worked with the urgency of someone who knew truth had an expiration date. She logged every canister, photographed every label, and handled the samples like they were cursed relics. Noah watched her work, each click of her camera a small, metallic amen.When the chemical readouts bloomed onto the lab monitor mercury, chromium, benzene Mira exhaled a single sharp breath, almost a sob, almost a battle cry.“This is it,” Tess whispered. “This is direct evidence of industrial dumping. Not runoff. Not natural seepage. This is deliberate.”Mira
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