Raven slammed his laptop shut in frustration. “They’re running counter-events—same night, same name, different message.”Elise leaned back, thinking. “We can’t just play defense. We need to hit their fake Lumen at the root—trace the infrastructure like we did in Medellín.”Sophia’s eyes sharpened. “
Chapter 163: Counter-LumenThe return to Quito was a blur of airport corridors and whispered strategy. Sophia barely registered the mountains outside the plane window; her mind was locked on the portable drives now hidden beneath a false floor in her pack.They’d made it out of Medellín, but the wei
“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