Camila sat hunched at the lab's archival terminal, heart pounding like a war drum. She'd snuck away from the penthouse under the pretext of reviewing new pediatric EEG data. Lucas was at “mirror‐synesthesia" therapy with Ms. Keller; Julian—grudgingly—had agreed that she could access the company's secure research archives for her own safety and to satisfy the court's transparency requirements.
The archival interface glowed on the screen: rows of video thumbnails, file names cryptic—AZR‑TRIAL‑01, AZR‑TRIAL‑02, and so on. The earliest date was twenty years ago.
A single line of white text above the list sent a chill down her spine:
> **Project AZRAEL: Human Empathy Bonding Trials – Confidential**
Camila exhaled. “Here goes nothing," she whispered, clicking on AZR‑TRIAL‑01. The video st
