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The Circus Begins

Penulis: Orion Vale
last update Terakhir Diperbarui: 2025-09-06 04:50:00

Present Day - Monday Morning

The news vans arrive at 5:47 AM.

Aria watches from the cottage's upstairs window as satellite dishes unfold like mechanical flowers in the pale morning light. Three vans become five. Five becomes eight.

By six-thirty, her quiet street looks like a media battlefield.

"Mama, why are there so many cars?"

Sophie appears beside her, still in her dinosaur pajamas, pressing her nose against the glass.

"Just some people who want to ask grown-up questions about boring things."

"Can we go make pancakes?"

Aria's heart aches at the normalcy of the request. Sophie has no idea that today marks the beginning of her father's federal fraud trial. No idea that her mother would spend the morning testifying about the man who abandoned them both.

"Let's make extra chocolate chip ones," Aria says, forcing brightness into her voice.

Downstairs, Marcus stands in the kitchen with his phone pressed to his ear, his face grim.

"I understand, but surely there's another way... Yes, I k
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  • The Spy Who Left   The Business of Betrayal

    Three Months LaterVictoria's new office overlooked Geneva's financial district from the twentieth floor of a gleaming tower.Enhanced Family Support Services. That's what the elegant sign on her door announced.Aria visited on a Tuesday afternoon, bringing coffee and unease in equal measure."This is impressive," she said, taking in the professional space. Reception area. Conference rooms. Staff members moving with purposeful efficiency."It's been a learning curve," Victoria replied, organizing files on her desk. "But the work is important. Helping enhanced families navigate legal protections, connect with medical resources, and find educational support.""All things our foundation tried to do before families started disappearing."Victoria's expression flickered. "Which is why I'm being more careful. Better vetting. Stronger security. Learning from past mistakes."Aria sat down, studying her friend and ally of the past year."Who's funding this?""Private investors who believe in t

  • The Spy Who Left   Blood Ties

    The Rehabilitation Wing – Ashford AcademySophie stared at Elena, processing revelations that rewrote her entire understanding of family."Aria doesn't know she has a sister?""She doesn't know she has a sister who survived past childhood. Our father told her I died when I was three. Easier than explaining why one daughter stayed with him while the other was sent to live with her mother."Elena pulled out photographs that had been hidden in her rehabilitation file. Two little girls. Same eyes. Different mothers."I was the first experiment. Enhanced at age two. Cognitive modifications that made me brilliant but unstable. When Aria came along ten years later, he'd refined the protocols.""So Aria's enhancement wasn't accidental.""Nothing about our family has ever been accidental. Every marriage, every child, every relationship all calculated to produce specific genetic outcomes."Sophie felt sick. "And Leon? My father?""Selected. Just like Morrison told you. Psychological profile ind

  • The Spy Who Left   The Training Ground

    Day Three at Ashford AcademySophie woke to the sound of a bell at precisely six a.m.Around her, eleven other children rose from their beds with synchronized efficiency that spoke of extensive conditioning."Morning exercises in ten minutes," Sarah announced, already dressed in the Academy's standard training uniform. "Don't be late. Dr. Morrison doesn't like late."Dr. Morrison. The name carried weight that made Sophie's enhanced pattern recognition engage immediately.Not a teacher. A handler.Sophie dressed quickly, observing the other children. Ages nine to thirteen. All moving with controlled precision that suggested both enhancement and extensive training.The exercise room was underground. No windows. Biometric scanners at the entrance. The kind of security that had nothing to do with education.Dr. Morrison was a woman in her fifties with sharp eyes that assessed Sophie the moment she entered."Miss Chen. Welcome to advanced physical conditioning. Today, we'll be evaluating y

  • The Spy Who Left   Broken Sanctuary

    Twenty-Four Hours After the DisappearancesAria sat in the empty Zurich center, surrounded by silence where children's voices should have been.Eighteen families. Fifty-seven people. Gone.And it was her fault."We need to evacuate the remaining families," Marcus said, checking their secure communications for the third time in an hour. "Get them somewhere safe before.""Before what? Before whoever is taking them finds them through other channels? Marcus, we're the ones who made them visible. Our foundation identified the most enhanced children and put them in one place.""We were trying to help.""We were naive. Thinking we could create a sanctuary in a world where surveillance is ubiquitous and protection is just another word for control."Sophie sat at a child-sized table, her eleven-year-old frame looking small in furniture designed for younger children who were no longer there."I've been analyzing the disappearances," she said quietly. "Looking for patterns in which families were

  • The Spy Who Left   The Illusion of Reform

    Three Months After Sophie's UN MeetingThe press conference announcing the Global Technology Transparency Initiative was held in a gleaming conference center that smelled of new construction and optimism.Aria sat in the audience watching tech executives pledge to revolutionary reforms in data privacy and surveillance practices."We recognize that the events of the past year have eroded public trust," the CEO of a major social media platform announced. "Today, we commit to transparency, oversight, and protecting vulnerable populations, especially enhanced children from exploitation."Applause filled the room. Journalists scribbled notes about historic reforms.Aria felt sick.Marcus leaned over, whispering, "This sounds exactly like what we fought for.""That's what worries me."On stage, executives from seventeen tech companies signed agreements to limit data collection, submit to independent audits, and create protections specifically for enhanced individuals.The reforms looked com

  • The Spy Who Left   The Weight of Winning - 2

    One Month Later – UN Registry HeadquartersSophie sat in a conference room with officials who smiled like they were offering opportunities instead of chains."Miss Vale, your testimony helped create protections that benefit millions of enhanced individuals worldwide.""I'm aware.""We'd like you to join our oversight committee. Use your unique perspective to ensure the registry serves enhanced individuals rather than surveilling them."Sophie met their eyes with enhanced empathic awareness that told her exactly how insincere the offer was."What would my role include?""Consulting on policy. Representing enhanced individual interests. Helping us understand the community's needs.""While giving you access to that community's trust and communication channels."The officials' smiles faltered slightly."We're not asking you to spy on your community, Miss Vale.""No. You're asking me to legitimize surveillance by participating in it. Make enhanced individuals believe the registry is safe b

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