The notification from Valdez arrived at 11:19 p.m., when the apartment lights had dimmed to their lowest setting and the city outside the windows had become a distant glitter.
It wasn’t a message.
It was an invitation.
Private Archive Access – One Time Only
Subject: Project Orpheus – Origin File
View Window: 15 minutes
Location: My office. Come alone.
Shawn was in the bedroom when I read it, still fighting the physiological war inside his own body. He had refused to come closer than the three-foot boundary he had imposed on himself, but I could hear him pacing — restless, strained, his breathing occasionally catching like the system was still punishing him for resisting.
I didn’t tell him about the message.
Not yet.
I slipped on jeans and a hoodie over his shirt and left the apartme
