“Basement level,” he murmured.Sophia kept the conversation with their assigned “account manager” flowing, asking about campaign strategies, client portfolios. Elise took notes that were really sketches of the building layout, marking exits and stairwells.Twenty minutes later, Raven’s tablet flashe
Chapter 162: The City of MirrorsThe morning sun over Santiago was unusually harsh, bleaching the colors from the mural in the EmberRoots courtyard. Sophia squinted against it, a faint headache pressing behind her eyes. She hadn’t slept much since the latest wave of disinformation—Eris’s fabrication
Chapter 161: Fault Lines WithinThe EmberRoots headquarters in Santiago hummed quietly in the late afternoon. Outside, the mural from the gathering still stood vibrant, its painted tree now a landmark and a meeting point. But inside, the mood had shifted.Raven sat hunched at the main console, his e
Meanwhile, the artists sketched the outline: the Andes rising behind the city, a river winding through markets and music, and hundreds of faces—some drawn from photographs, others from memory.---The night of the gathering arrived cold and clear. In the Plaza de Armas, a crowd began to form, lanter
Chapter 160: Santiago’s Turning Point---The plane touched down in Santiago under a bruised evening sky, the last gold of sunset slipping behind the snow-streaked Andes. From the window, Sophia could see the grid of streets glimmering faintly, as if the city itself was holding its breath.She stepp
Chapter 159: The Network of ShadowsThe dawn arrived cold and thin over Quito, Ecuador. From the vantage point of a rooftop café overlooking the city’s terraced streets and crumbling colonial facades, Sophia scanned the horizon with a cup of bitter coffee warming her hands. The EmberRoots pin on her