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The New Normal

Author: Orion Vale
last update Last Updated: 2025-09-05 05:11:02

Two Months After the Wedding

The moving truck pulls away from the cottage, leaving tire tracks in the gravel driveway like evidence of change.

Aria stands on the porch, watching Marcus carry the last of his boxes through the front door. His books, his research papers, his coffee maker that makes better espresso than anything she's ever tasted.

The physical pieces of a life being woven into theirs.

"Mama, where do Marcus's dinosaurs go?"

Sophie appears in the doorway, dragging a box that's almost as big as she is. Her face is serious, like she's been appointed supervisor of this entire operation.

"What dinosaurs, baby?"

"The ones he promised to get for emergencies. In case I forget mine places."

Aria's chest warms. Even now, two months after their engagement, Marcus continues to think like a father. Planning for the small crises that matter most to a four-year-old.

"We'll make space for them in your room," she says, kissing the top of Sophie's head.

"And his coffee maker?"

"Kitchen cou
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  • The Spy Who Left   Ashes and Suspicion

    Hours After the ExplosionAria sat in the hospital emergency room with minor burns and ringing ears while investigators sifted through the cottage's remains.The explosion had been precise. Targeted to destroy evidence without causing casualties. Professional demolition disguised as an accident.Marcus arrived with Sophie and Elena, all of them pale with shock."Are you okay?" Sophie asked, her empathic awareness immediately sensing her mother's physical pain and emotional devastation."I'm alive. Everything we built isn't."The evidence. The documentation. The coordinated exposure they'd spent months preparing. All reduced to ashes and a forensic investigation.Shadow appeared with Victoria, both looking stricken."I came as soon as I heard," Victoria said. "What happened?"Aria studied her friend with new suspicion. "Someone sabotaged the cottage. Someone who knew our timeline for exposure.""You think I did this?" Victoria's voice carried genuine hurt."I think you're the most obvi

  • 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

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