👉 Previous decision: You heard Eli O’Connor’s warnings and learned about the illegal memory-harvesting servers in the sub-basement.
Eli’s words resonated with chilling clarity. Marcus wasn’t just stealing inheritances; he was part of something far more sinister. The memory harvesting explained the profound, disorienting blankness, the “peace” that settled over the other residents. They weren’t just being wiped; they were being emptied.
I carried Eli’s override, a cold weight in my pocket, for two days, waiting for the right moment. The isolation from Clara and my grandson was a constant ache, but it fueled a bitter resolve. I had to know the full extent of Marcus’s betrayal, for them.
During my lunch break, I returned to my locker in the staff changing room. As I reached for my sandwich, a faint, rhythmic vibration tickled my fingertips. I fumbled through the sparse contents, finding a small, flat device stuck to the back of the locker with industrial-strength adhesive. It was a miniaturized radio receiver, its tiny green light blinking.
A coded message scrolled across its minute screen: “JL. ECHO. ALPHA. FOURTEEN.”
I recognized the old callsign from my estranged brother, Gavin. He had worked in intelligence, disappearing after a scandal years ago. I thought he was gone for good.
The device vibrated again, a new message appearing: “OVERRIDE CLONED. SYNDICATE LOGISTICS. KEYCARD: C-73. SHIFT CHANGE 0300. WINDOW: 4 MIN.”
Gavin. He was alive. He had been quietly investigating Aethelgard’s shadowy financial trails from the outside for eighteen months, the message implied. He knew about the syndicate. He knew about the sub-basement. And he’d provided the means, a specific keycard, for me to get in.
The small, flat device blinked once more, displaying a single, stark word: “NOW.”
My hands shook, not from fear, but from a surge of desperate hope. My brother, the one I thought I’d lost, was reaching out. He was offering me a way in, a single four-minute window into the heart of the operation.
**➡️ Read CHAPTER 7: Private Reckoning to continue the story**
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