By the time I reach the service lifts he’s already striding towards me, jacket thrown over hastily fastened clothes, still rubbing sleep from one eye. I thank him for coming so quickly.
“You’ve never called me before sunrise without a good reason,” he says. “What have you found?”
I glance towards the descending lift as the doors slide open. “Hopefully,” I say, stepping inside, “our way out.”
“Miro’s bait was accessed tonight. Percy tracked the clearance through the live network before the trail disappeared.”
“And?”
“It led us to Kazren.”
His head snaps up. “You’re certain?”
“The live records aren’t enough to accuse him. He’ll claim someone exploited his clearance the same way every other trail has been scrubbed. But the junction node records every authenticated handoff before the data reaches the network. If his clearance touched the bait, it’ll be written here in hardware.”
Resh’s orange eyes lock on mine. “And if it’s there…”
“I take it to Father.”
The lift opens onto the lower maintenance level. The passage beyond is cold and deserted, the walls lined with ageing service panels installed long before the House’s modern network. Miro’s directions lead us without hesitation to one panel near the end of the hall.
“This is it,” I say.
I crouch beside the panel while Resh keeps watch. The old fasteners creak as I loosen them one by one before easing the metal cover free. Inside, rows of dusty hardware sit exactly where Miro said they would.
“So far, so good,” I mutter.
I reach into the housing, disconnect the storage module and turn it over in my hands, checking the seals. Relief comes hard and fast. “They’re intact, but I’m going to check if any information has been scrubbed.”
I slot the module into my wrist band and wait while the old system wakes. Lines of data scroll across the display, timestamps cross-referencing with authenticated House clearances. I filter the entries until only the bait line remains.
Kazren’s clearance signature appears exactly where we’d hoped it would, stamped into the local hardware with a timestamp he can neither alter nor deny. Relief washes through me for the space of a single heartbeat. We finally have the evidence I’ve been searching for, evidence my father can’t dismiss as manipulated network traffic or fabricated credentials.
I continue scrolling through the remaining records, wanting to understand exactly how Kazren moved once he’d taken the bait. The node faithfully records every authenticated transition through the House, each checkpoint building a path across the internal security grid. Residential tier. Private lift. North wing. I follow the route, mentally walking the halls before the final destination resolves on my display.
My father’s private quarters.
I frown and scroll back to the timestamp, checking it against the rest of the log. It places Kazren there while I was below with Tevan.
That isn’t right.
Kazren had no reason to go to Father unless Father was already expecting him.
If Kazren realized we’d laid a trap, his first instinct should have been to cover his tracks, destroy evidence or disappear long enough for the investigation to lose momentum. Instead he’d walked directly into Father’s private wing as though he had every expectation of being there.
I stare at the display for several long seconds, searching for another explanation. A duplicated access record. A maintenance fault. Anything that allows the pieces to stay where I’d put them.
I’ve been asking the wrong question from the beginning. I kept trying to work out how Kazren had managed to stay a step ahead of me for so long, assuming he was operating alone. He wasn’t. He’d had someone shielding him, someone with authority greater than my own, someone capable of redirecting investigations, burying reports and ensuring every trail ended exactly where they wanted it to.
The pieces finally lock together. It was never just Kazren. He hadn’t gone there to hide what he’d done. He’d gone because Father was expecting him, because Father had been part of it from the beginning.Father had shielded the male who murdered Selin. He’d known. The whole time, he’d known.
My wrist comm vibrates against my arm, dragging me back into the corridor. Irritated, I glance down, expecting another security update from the House.
Instead, a priority alert expands across the screen.
Private Quarters. Security Override Authorized.
Authorisation: Lord Sethrak.
