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Chapter Two

ผู้เขียน: You Keika
last update ปรับปรุงล่าสุด: 2025-06-01 06:00:34

Sera’s legs nearly gave out.

The phone screen burned into her mind Elise, unmistakable. A candid shot, wind in her hair, city lights behind her, alive. The exact kind of photo you didn’t take of a dead woman.

She looked up. “Where did you get this?”

Lucien didn’t blink. “That’s not the question you should be asking.”

Her throat tightened. “What does that mean?”

“It means,” he said, slipping the phone back into his pocket, “if you’re going to keep asking the wrong questions, you’re going to stay lost.”

He turned his back to her.

Just like that.

Like showing her proof her sister was alive wasn’t the beginning of a conversation, it was the end of one.

“You can’t drop that and walk away,” she snapped. “Where was she? When was this taken? Who took it?”

Lucien poured a glass of something dark from a decanter near the desk. “Sit down.”

“No.”

He turned back to her, glass in hand, completely composed. “Then don’t. But I suggest you lower your voice. You’re not as invisible as you think.”

Something about the way he said it made her glance toward the corners of the ceiling.

She spotted them now. Tiny, seamless.

Cameras.

Of course.

“You’re being watched?”

“We’re being watched,” he corrected.

He handed her the drink. She didn’t take it.

His expression didn’t change. “You want to find Elise. I want to make sure the wrong people don’t know she’s been seen. That puts us on the same side.”

Sera swallowed. “What wrong people?”

Lucien didn’t answer. Just took a sip of his drink, then set the glass down with a click that echoed too loudly in the stillness.

“I don’t trust you,” she said.

“Good,” he replied. “Trust gets people killed.”

The door behind her clicked open.

A tall woman stepped in a severe bun, all black, tablet in hand. Security, maybe. Assistant. Assassin. Sera couldn’t tell.

“She’s clear,” the woman said, not looking at her. “No weapons, no bugs.”

Lucien nodded once. “Thank you, Mara.”

Sera stared. “You had me scanned?”

“Do you think I’d let a stranger this close without knowing everything?”

Her fists clenched. “You don’t know everything about me.”

Lucien walked toward her, slow, calculating. “I know your student loans are defaulting. That you were evicted twice in the past year. That you dropped out of Columbia’s journalism program three months after your sister disappeared. And that your last known address was a hostel with no working cameras.”

He stopped inches away.

“And now, here you are. Risking everything for answers.”

She wanted to slap him. Scream. Run.

Instead, she forced herself to look him in the eye. “So help me get them.”

Lucien studied her for a long, still moment.

Then he said: “Stay.”

Sera blinked. “What?”

“One week. Here. Under my protection.”

Her heart stuttered. “Why would I agree to that?”

“Because whoever took Elise…” He leaned in. “...doesn’t know you’re looking.”

Pause.

“And if you keep poking around without understanding the rules, you won’t make it to the end of the week.”

Silence wrapped around them again, thick as velvet.

Lucien extended his hand, palm open. Not an offer.

A deal.

Sera stared at it, breath shallow.

Everything in her life screamed don’t.

But Elise’s face… the timestamp… the chance…

She placed her hand in his.

And Lucien smiled.

But there was no warmth in it.

Just frost.

Lucien’s grip was firm controlled, not cruel. But the second her fingers touched his, Sera felt it: the shift. Like something old and dangerous had just been set in motion.

She pulled her hand back first.

“I’m not agreeing to anything without details,” she said, pulse ticking in her throat. “What does ‘under your protection’ even mean?”

Lucien turned, walked toward a recessed panel near the bookshelf, and pressed his palm to it. A hiss, then a door slid open, revealing an elevator behind mirrored glass.

“It means,” he said, “you don’t leave this building for seven days. You don’t contact anyone. No phones, no internet. My rules, my security.”

“Prison,” she muttered.

“Insurance,” he corrected. “Yours and mine.”

Sera stared at him. “You think I’m a threat?”

“I think you’re reckless, desperate, and smarter than you let on.” He stepped inside the elevator, held the door open. “And those three things tend to get people noticed by the wrong eyes.”

She didn’t move.

Lucien sighed. “You came here for answers, Miss Duvall. They don’t come cheap. They don’t come fast. But they are here.”

She hated him.

Not for being arrogant.

For being right.

Sera stepped into the elevator.

The doors slid shut. The hum of motion began. No buttons. No visible floor count. Just mirrored walls and silence.

He didn’t look at her. “You’re still shaking.”

“I’m not afraid of you.”

He turned, slowly. “Good. Because I’m not the one you should be afraid of.”

Before she could ask what that meant, the elevator stopped.

The doors opened into… another world.

Lucien’s private residence.

It wasn’t cold. It was frozen. White marble floors, black leather furniture, floor-to-ceiling windows that overlooked a glittering city blanketed in snow. The space was sterile, curated. Beautiful, but inhuman. Like no one actually lived here.

“I’ll have a room prepared for you,” Lucien said, stepping out. “Don’t wander. Don’t touch anything that’s locked. And don’t lie to me again.”

She followed him through the space, her boots silent on the polished floor.

“You really don’t trust anyone, do you?”

Lucien stopped.

“Trust,” he said without turning, “is something I buy in pieces. And when I’m done, I rarely keep it.”

He walked away, disappearing down a long corridor that swallowed light.

Sera stood alone in a place that was too quiet to be safe.

Then, something caught her eye.

A glint barely there. Above the archway.

A camera.

She turned slowly.

One in every corner. No red lights. No blinking.

Always watching.

And for the first time that night, Sera realized:

She hadn’t walked into a cage.

She’d walked into a test.

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  • Cold Hands, Warm Lies   Chapter Fifty Three

    A red siren jolted through the penthouse. Sera bolted upright, heart spiking. Lucien was already alert, pulse pounding.> Lucien (urgent whisper): “They’re inside.”Still clad in last night’s heat, they raced through dimly lit halls toward the command hub. Crimson warning lights flickered.> Sera (fingers flying on the console): “I’m isolating the node PENTHOUSE_NODE.”Codes streamed across the screen then a new alert: INTRUDER: Basement Safe Room.They exchanged a charged look.> Lucien: “Stay close. Let’s move.”They crept toward the basement staircase, hallway lights flickering with each breath.The basement corridor felt colder, glass walls reflecting metal racks and server cages, silent sentinels of their world. The door to the safe room was ajar.> Lucien (whisper): “I’ll go in cover me.”Sera shook her head.> Sera: “No. I’m not hiding.”They slipped inside.Aquila stood before them, relaxed yet dangerous, rain glistening on his damp coat.> Aquila: “You built a sanctuary but l

  • Cold Hands, Warm Lies   Chapter Fifty Two

    The grey dawn in Berlin mirrored the mood on Marktplatz Square, a stark contrast to the soft glow of Amber nodes worldwide. Protest signs littered the plaza: “Don’t Test My Truth!”, “Amber = Surveillance!”, “Free Choice or Digital Cage?”Sera stepped out of the van, bundled in a trench coat beside Lucien and Elise. The air smelled of diesel and damp concrete. They wore earpieces, tablets in hand, not tourists, but peacemakers in a digital rebellion.> Ava (over comm):“Berlin node is live but flagged every 30 seconds. A mass node freeze is pending.”Sera studied the crowd faces alive with rage, fear, confusion.> Sera (into mic, determined):“We’re here to listen. Not lecture.”Lucien wrapped an arm around her waist silent strength beside her.> Lucien:“Let’s show them it’s human-powered.”They approached a line of police barrier tape. A group of protesters surged forward, chanting slogans in German.Sera raised a hand peaceful, measured > Sera (voice calm):“We’re with you. Let us

  • Cold Hands, Warm Lies   Chapter Fifty One

    As dawn broke in Manhattan, whispers of Amber’s “Emotional Fidelity Test” swept across social feeds. The debate was ablaze: hashtags #FidelityNow and #TrustTooFar clashed pixel for pixel. Meanwhile, in the penthouse, screens showed live dashboards:Global Node Activity: 7.8 M users onlineTest Flags: 54 active fidelity alertsAverage Sync Time: 17 sec (Global Avg)Sera sat at the main terminal, Lucien next to her. A monitor flickered with a new alert:> User 042-Nairobi: Inconsistent response panic.Sera’s chest tightened.> Sera: “Let’s reach them.”Lucien tapped the comms mic. Lucien and Sera prepared to perform live emotional “therapy-in-code” sessions. Each intervention would test Amber’s promise empathy coded to compassion, not control.> Lucien: “Remember honesty, warmth, no judgment.”He cupped her face.> Lucien (soft): “You already saved a soul. You can do it again.”They began linking global nodes:1. Nairobi2. Tokyo (still red)3. MumbaiA face popped on Sera’s screen youn

  • Cold Hands, Warm Lies   Chapter Fifty

    The front door slid open with a soft beep. Sera and Lucien, still wrapped in blankets atop the couch, froze.Two figures stepped through the entryway. Elise taller now, a whisper of steel behind her confident posture was accompanied by a silhouette cloaked in darkness.Sera’s heart slammed; Lucien’s jaw tightened.> Sera (voice trembling): “Elise?”Her sister offered a slow, bittersweet smile.> Elise: “Home.”Elise’s eyes sought Sera’s.> Elise (soft): “It’s time to untie the last knot.”The second figure stepped forward Ava Cortez, Elise’s former assistant. Elegant, poised, but eyes cold and calculating.> Ava: “You passed his tests. But did you pass mine?”Sera’s breath caught. Lucien stood ready at her side.> Lucien: “What are you doing here?”Elise dropped into a chair opposite them.> Elise (quiet): “I’m here to finish this together.”Elise moved to the command hub. She placed her hands on the central terminal.> Elise: “Aquila was just the first layer, this is the real test.”

  • Cold Hands, Warm Lies   Chapter Forty Nine

    Lights flickered across the penthouse foyer as the sealed door creaked open. Sera, Lucien, and Maple moved as one every sense on alert. The air was cold, and their compressed breaths echoed loud in the polished entry hall.Lucien’s fingers grazed Sera’s back, encouraging, protective. She gripped his hand, feeling their partnership anchor her courage.From the shadows, a figure stepped into the light. Tall, confident, and unmistakably familiar.> Sera (voice low): “Marcus...?”No. This wasn’t Marcus Flynn. The stranger ambled in, suit tailored but edges worn. Straightened his tie with deliberate ease.> Stranger (cool inflection): “If you think that backdoor was the final surprise, you haven’t been paying attention.”He tapped the override alert on a phone, blueprints of sealed rooms appearing behind him.> Stranger: “Analogy: You thought you buried the serpent. But I raised it. Again.”Lucien stepped forward.> Lucien (growl): “Who are you? What do you want?”The man’s lips curved in

  • Cold Hands, Warm Lies   Chapter Forty Eight

    In the soft glow of the late-night command hub, Sera and Lucien stood shoulder to shoulder before four luminous screens: global node maps flickering, highlight on their own penthouse node, and warning flags marking untrusted access.Maple, hands trembling slightly over her keyboard, spoke first:> Maple (whisper): “Another override. Node 1122 your penthouse. It’s active again.”Sera’s breath hitched. Lucien placed a steadying hand on her back.> Lucien (quiet): “Someone inside, still loyal to Elise’s backdoor.”Henry Sr. joined in, pale but focused:> Henry Sr.: “We don’t know if it’s sabotage... or someone risking themselves to sabotage before it's shut down permanently.”Sera inched closer to Lucien:> Sera (low): “Then we need the traitor. Now.”They split the tasks. Maple began tracing the override’s digital footsteps clocked at midnight, last zap four milliseconds after the log-in. Meanwhile, Sera quietly retrieved a small drive from her pocket.> Sera (to Lucien): “That flash dr

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