Chapter 52. Subject Eight

Ledger HQ had returned to its rhythm—coffee carts sliding between transparent halls, executives whispering over biometric locks, floors humming with neural server recalibrations. But down in the secure lab beneath it all, the rhythm was off-beat. The Mother Node drives—black-metal slivers of betrayal and brilliance—sat inert on a polished steel counter, like relics salvaged from a war no one yet understood how to name.

Harper Quinn stood still, hands tucked in her blazer, staring down at the evidence of her latest fracture point. Knox stood beside her, his presence solid as ever, the only constant she trusted. Across the room, Lucien’s workstation remained dark. No login. No message. No digital residue of movement or intent. Just stillness—the kind left behind after a controlled detonation.

“He said ‘Subject Eight,’” Harper murmured.

Knox nodded grimly. “Now we have to find out exactly what that means.”

They worked in silence, pulling metadata from the Mother