CHAPTER 12 — The Dream of Numbers
UN Residency Medical Bay → Treaty Mirror Atrium → Vesper Net-Quake
They put Arif on a table that had never been meant for a man like him.
The UN medical bay was clean, bright, and human in a way Vesper clinics weren’t. There was no calming blue gradient on the walls, no subliminal lull in the air. The Residency didn’t have the budget or the stomach for mood-editing. It relied on older tools: triage, language, touch.
Arif’s shard lay on the gurney like a body that had survived too long on borrowed code. His chest rose and fell faintly. Each breath seemed to decide whether the next one was worth it.
Elara moved with the competence that used to make Authority trust her without questions. Now the same competence felt like contraband.
“Vitals dropping,” s
