Alex couldn't sleep.
Not that he really expected to. Ever since seeing her—the girl on the fire escape with platinum hair and eyes like winter—his mind hadn't slowed once. It wasn't just the image of her standing above the alley, watching him. It was the feeling in his gut.
Recognition.
She had looked at him like she knew what he was. Not just his name, or his face. What he was.
And she'd smiled like she'd been waiting.
『 ◆ CRIMESYNC™ SYSTEM LOG – QUERY: UNKNOWN ENTITY / SUBJECT BETA 』『 Result: ACCESS DENIED – CLEARANCE LEVEL RESTRICTED 』『 Warning: Unauthorized data retrieval attempt logged. Further infractions may result in protocol lockdown. 』
The lockout confirmed it. CRIMESYNC knew who she was. It just wasn't telling him. That only happened with classified data—Level 5 clearance or higher.
But he was CRIMESYNC's most integrated subject. If it was hiding something from him… it wasn't just about operational secrecy.
It was about control.
Someone else had the keys. And she wasn't just part of the system.
She was the system, in a way he didn't understand yet.
But he would.
Even if it killed him.
The next morning, the Bureau felt different. Colder. Like something was moving beneath the surface of everyday routine.
Detective Marcus Williams barely looked up from his desk as he tossed them their orders. "Back to Records," he muttered. "Miller wants you digging through the Jennifer Walsh file again."
"Didn't we already go through that?" Kevin asked, stifling a yawn. "We spent six hours in that basement."
Williams gave a tired glance. "Yeah, well, apparently someone thinks we missed something."
Alex didn't say a word. His heart was already beating faster.
Because he knew.
They had.
The Records Department was a concrete crypt under the Bureau. No windows. No fresh air. Just rows of shelves filled with boxed evidence and forgotten nightmares.
Kevin fumbled with the lock on the storage cage, muttering about cold coffee and back pain. Alex moved ahead of him, zeroed in on the dusty cardboard file marked JW-Case 2005.
He carried it like it was radioactive.
Inside were the fragments of Jennifer Walsh's last moments. Photos. Autopsy reports. A red-stained blouse sealed in plastic. Her dorm ID—she was twenty, just like them.
But she'd died alone, screaming.
In a way Alex remembered too clearly.
『 ◆ MEMORY RECALL INITIATED 』『 Simulation #51,789 – University Dismemberment Case 』『 Accuracy Correlation: 99.3% 』
His fingers trembled slightly as he touched the photo of her crime scene.
The simulated memory was perfect. Too perfect. The mattress. The lighting. Even the angle of the camera.
The system hadn't invented this scenario.
It had recreated it.
Which meant whoever had programmed the sim had access to the real case files—or had committed the crime.
Kevin leaned over, whistling low. "Still creeps me out. The way her hand's missing three fingers? That's the same as Blackwater."
"Exactly the same," Alex muttered. "Same posture. Same cut angles. Same surgical precision."
"You think it's a copycat?"
Alex shook his head slowly. "No. I think this was the prototype."
He flipped deeper into the folder. The layout of the dump sites matched exactly what he remembered from the simulation—three precise locations around the university, triangulated to confuse police response.
It hadn't worked.
But it had been perfect practice.
That's when he saw it.
A sheet folded into quarters, tucked behind an old interview transcript. The paper was yellowed, brittle, like it hadn't seen daylight in years.
He opened it.
CLASSIFIED – INTERNAL ACCESS ONLYSUBJECT: Candidate Integration Viability – A.S.
His stomach dropped.
It was about him.
Redacted lines ran down the page like prison bars, but enough remained to make his blood run cold:
"Subject demonstrates clean execution metrics under high-stress immersion.""Recommendation: monitor long-term moral drift.""Behavioral containment protocols greenlit.""Outcome probability: partial compliance."
『 ◆ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION – CLASSIFIED FILE ACCESSED 』『 Alert: Subject Alpha attempting unauthorized recall of historical integration records 』『 Access Level Breach: Logged. Observation status updated. 』
Alex's breath came in sharp, quiet bursts. His vision swam.
He hadn't joined CRIMESYNC because of his aptitude.
They had selected him years before. Maybe because of the way his mind worked. Or maybe they'd made it that way.
His test scores. His simulations. His perfect memory.
None of it was coincidence.
It was design.
Kevin was flipping through the autopsy report again. "We never found this stuff last time. I swear some of it's new."
"No," Alex said quietly. "We just didn't know what to look for."
He walked to the far side of the room, where the lights flickered worst and the cameras never seemed to catch anything clean.
He accessed the system mentally.
『 ◆ USER ALEX STONE – MANUAL SYSTEM QUERY 』『 Subject Classification: ALPHA – ACTIVE DEPLOYMENT 』『 Assigned Directive: UNDISCLOSED 』『 Handler Access Level: RESTRICTED » ABOVE SUBJECT 』
『 ALERT: Multiple threads under external surveillance. Subject Beta proximity logged. 』
So she wasn't just an anomaly.
She was watching him.
Or someone was watching both of them.
That night, the Bureau parking structure was nearly empty. Only a few patrol cars. A busted van with a blown tire. The sky above was violet-gray, low clouds scraping the rooftops like dirty cotton.
Alex stood at the edge of the top floor, staring down at the city below.
So much noise. So much life. None of it felt real anymore.
Somewhere out there, Subject Beta was waiting. Watching. Maybe testing him.
Maybe hunting.
『 ◆ INTERNAL SCAN COMPLETE 』『 Psychological Stability Index: 61% » 55% » 49% » 44% 』『 Identity Fragmentation Detected 』『 Suggest Cognitive Realignment » DELAYED 』
He didn't need numbers to know he was unraveling.
He could feel it every time his hand moved faster than his thoughts. Every time a smile came too easily. Every time Kevin looked at him with subtle, flickering doubt.
Then something caught his eye.
A small piece of paper, folded and wedged under the stairwell doorframe.
He pulled it out.
There was no name. Just three words in tight, deliberate script.
You were chosen.
⟿ END OF CHAPTER 4⟿ TO BE CONTINUED…
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━CRIMESYNC™ REPORT // LOG 04.END› Subject: ALEX STONE› Status: MEMORY-SIMULATION OVERLAP CONFIRMED› Cognitive Dissonance: CRITICAL› Legacy Case Link: EXPOSED› Subject Beta Tracking: ACTIVE› Surveillance Leak: POSSIBLE
Observation:"Some ghosts don't haunt buildings.They haunt the people built to forget them."
⛔ Identity Anchor Collapse Imminent━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━