Chapter 24. The Forgery

The message blinked on Harper’s screen in red, steady like a heartbeat that shouldn’t be there.

USER ACCESS BLOCKED

CREDENTIAL CONFLICT — MATCHED KEY: Q7

ACTIVITY ROUTED THROUGH: LOS ANGELES NODE

She didn’t flinch. She didn’t move. She stared at the screen like it had just whispered her name with someone else’s voice.

Knox stood beside her now, shirt half-wrinkled, cuffs undone, breath still uneven from the chaos they’d left behind.

“She used your clearance,” he said, scanning the alert. His voice wasn’t surprised. Just resigned.

Harper shook her head once. “No. She didn’t just use it. She rebuilt it. She dressed her lie in my skin and sent it into the system.”

He leaned in closer. “How can you tell?”

She pointed to the screen, eyes sharp. “The timing’s wrong. My credentials wouldn’t create that kind of delay. It’s a mimic—a forgery designed to fool the logs, not me.”

Knox’s eyes darkened. “Then it’s not just sabotage. It’s