Read Watchman Novels & Stories

The shop was making enough to hire someone for help, and I wasn’t particular about who to hire, but discussing with Martha always brought perspective to the table. “Ma’am.” One of the guys knocked on my door and poked his head in. “We are done installing the cameras, the next step is to put the app on your phone and computer so you can monitor them anytime you wish.” I handed over my phone and computer to him, half listening to his tutorial of how to access the videos. He dropped a manual when he got the hint that I wasn’t following and I accepted it, throwing it into the first drawer of my desk.

Rowan started working on his plan. He stepped out onto the balcony. The two omega wolves followed him immediately. He had already placed them under his control earlier, and he had given them one simple task: “Watch everything. Count anyone who appears too often. Report quietly.” They moved around the central building of the castle in a slow, casual loop. Every few minutes, one of the omegas texted him. Two female delta wolves showed up in every area they passed. Rowan frowned. This was too easy. If Mother really wanted to spy on me, she wouldn’t use people this sloppy. Why are they so easy to spot? Are they a distraction?

Media surveillance. Hostile investors. But Damian’s message returned immediately. Two rotating teams. Monitoring your estate and Silas’s school. Evelyn looked up again. “Anything else?” Marcus nodded grimly. “We found two more transmitters near the south entrance.” Her chest tightened slightly. “That means someone has been observing this property closely.” “Yes.” Marcus crossed his arms. “And whoever installed them knew exactly where our blind spots were.” Evelyn’s gaze dropped back to the device on the desk. A quiet realization settled slowly.

Something about that look—so quiet, so unguarded—made him swallow, caught off guard by a feeling he didn’t want to acknowledge. Malikha nodded slightly and finished removing the watch. Snapping back to himself, Aidan pointed toward a glass drawer in the centre of the walk-in closet. Inside, rows of luxury watches were displayed like treasures. She walked over carefully, opened the drawer, and placed the Meteoris watch back into its case with the utmost care. “If anything of mine goes missing, I’ll know immediately,” Aidan said, his voice low. He pointed toward a corner of the room where a small camera was installed.

But somewhere under the logic, under the calm, the fear was still alive. Then one of the monitors flickered. Just for a second. A brief static blur — then normal again. Adrian frowned, leaned forward, rewound the feed. Nothing. No figure. No movement. Only the shimmer of rain against the security lights. He ran a systems check. The log showed something strange: CAM 04 / SECTOR WEST — RESET MANUAL / 01:13 A.M. / ACCESS: SECURITY CLEARANCE LEVEL ONE. Only two people had that level of access.

The last entry reads: "Shows unusual understanding of institutional mechanics for a sixteen-year-old outer disciple. Watch." The System finds the word WATCH appearing in multiple people's notes about Host to be statistically significant. The System is watching too. --- I close the notification. Look at the archive text in front of me. Watch. Elder Qian. Elder Mao. The Twelve Thrones' monitoring formations, probably. The System itself. Everyone watching.

The man frowned. "Why?" "Because tomorrow..." "...the courtroom will do more damage than bullets ever could." He ended the transmission. The watcher disappeared into the Manhattan crowd. Unseen. Waiting. For the first move

Amon’s watch that was placed there. “Sleep early tonight,” he said. “Yes, Sir.” My hand stopped wiping my hair. I placed the small towel on my shoulder. “Come to bed, Wisa. Before you collapse.” I shook my head. “No, Sir. I’ll keep watch beside you,” I answered. “You are mine 24 hours. Don’t die on me.” Amon closed his thin laptop. His voice was soft but piercing. Not long after, he touched the screen once, it went dark.

"Simpleton! What's happening? Why has the quantity of watchers in the live transmission room expanded all things being equal!" "Boss, the server closure has fizzled. The other transmission rooms have been closed down, so the watchers have all gotten into his transmission room." "Then, at that point, pick up the pace and restart the server!" "Indeed! Be that as it may, the restart will require 15 minutes. There are as yet 13 minutes until Bowen's passing. I'm worried it's past the point of no return." "For what reason didn't you say so prior! Advise the squad cars to speed up!"

“You said tap, but I do not want anyone listening to me. Ever.” He gave a little, almost sad smile. “I do not mean a tap in your everyday sense. Christian can set up a watcher on incoming messages that merely logs the header and the route. No content. No voice. Just the path. If a new message comes in from a new source we can mark it and trace where it traveled. If the person uses the same relay because they are sloppy, we can find them. If they use a new burner every time, it is harder, but the watch will help build patterns. We only want proof to hand over to the police when we are ready. The goal is to let them fall into their own mistake.”