THE OFFICER RAISED THE LAST DOCUMENT

I heard Milo before I saw the blood on my father's shirt.

He strained against the chain, barking at Voss. A narrow metal reader had been clamped around his collar. Green lights pulsed along its edge.

Dad's lower lip was split. One eye was swelling closed.

Voss looked almost pleased when we entered.

"A complete family reunion," he said.

Two guards stepped from the shadows behind us. Owen raised his pistol, but a red laser point appeared on my chest.

"Lower it," Voss said.

Owen obeyed.

Tessa quietly slipped the challenge transmitter into her sleeve.

Voss addressed Marissa. "Come closer."

She remained beside me.

"You wanted your debts erased," he said. "I can still keep that promise."

"You lied about Milo."

"I omitted operational details."

"You tortured him."

"The animal is unharmed."

Milo's raw neck and terrified eyes said otherwise.

Dad lifted his head. "Don't help him, Marissa."

Voss kicked the chair leg. Dad flinched.

My sister took one step forward.

I caught her hand. "No."

She whispered, "He's going to hurt Dad."

"He will hurt him anyway."

Voss smiled. "Lena understands leverage. She inherited that from Anna."

I forced myself to look at the ledger. Several pages were covered in columns of initials and amounts. One line had been circled in red: A.M. termination, authorized by O.V.

Owen saw it too.

"That's false," he said.

"Is it?" Voss asked.

Mom stared at Owen. "You said you failed to save her."

"I did not authorize her death."

Voss turned the ledger toward us. "Robert's own handwriting records the payment."

Dad shook his head. "I copied what I was told. The initials were never explained."

"Convenient."

The room filled with doubt exactly as Voss intended.

I remembered the photograph. Owen in the curtain's shadow. Anna injured. My parents afraid. Every person present had hidden something.

Milo stopped barking and looked at me.

That steadied me.

"What happens when you complete Guardian?" I asked.

Voss's eyes brightened. "History becomes recoverable."

"And then?"

"Those who built Halcyon can be held accountable."

"You are Halcyon."

"I inherited its ruins. I did not create its sins."

Ruth laughed harshly. "You rebuilt the kennels."

"To find the archive."

"You bought stolen animals."

"To retrieve stolen property."

His moral language was polished enough to hide anything.

Voss ordered Marissa to place her thumb on a portable scanner. She refused. One guard tightened the laser on my chest.

"Do it," I said.

She looked at me in betrayal.

"Trust me."

Slowly, she approached the scanner.

Tessa shifted behind Mom. The transmitter slid from her sleeve into her hand.

Marissa pressed her thumb to the glass.

The reader on Milo's collar chimed.

Voss attached Anna's hospital bracelet to a second sensor.

Lines of code appeared on a laptop screen.

For three seconds, nothing happened.

Then Tessa activated Owen's transmitter.

Every light in the garage turned white.

The laptop displayed a single message:

AUTHORITY CONFLICT

Milo's collar reader sparked. The chain lock released.

He lunged, not at Voss, but at the guard holding the laser weapon. The man stumbled. Owen struck the second guard. Dad threw his chair sideways into Voss's legs.

I grabbed the ledger.

Marissa seized the hospital bracelet.

We ran.