Chapter 131.
Luri’s apartment sat on the twelfth floor of a modest building in the city’s quieter district—a place where the hustle of government agents, mercenaries, and twisted geniuses didn’t quite reach. Or at least, not directly.
Inside, the apartment smelled faintly of coffee and fresh fabric softener. The curtains fluttered in the wind, and the hum of a fan rotated quietly in the corner. Books and case files were scattered on the coffee table, some open, some bookmarked with sticky notes, others scribbled over with highlighter pens in Luri’s neat handwriting.
Diana Sebanil, tall and composed, sat cross-legged on the couch. Her dark burgundy blouse and tailored trousers made her look more like a royal emissary than a rogue investigator. But her narrowed eyes said she hadn’t slept properly in days. She held a half-empty mug of strong tea and stared at the board pinned with documents about the ongoing case—chief among them, the Apex Lab and Doctor Naehr’s twisted genome project.
Luri stood beside the whiteboard, arms crossed. Her short auburn hair was messy, tied loosely back with a pencil stuck behind one ear. Her expression was thoughtful, eyes flitting from photo to photo as she chewed her bottom lip.
"There’s something missing," Luri said quietly, for the fifth time that hour.
Diana nodded. "I feel it too. Chief Argo laid out the last stage of the plan—the supposed location of the central dispersion node, the modified genome vials, and Naehr’s projected timeline. But it’s too... clean. It’s like he wants us to stop him."
Luri’s dark eyes flicked toward Diana. "Like bait?"
"Exactly," Diana said, setting her mug down. "He’s leaving a trail because there’s something else going on. And if we take the bait too quickly, we might miss the real play."
They both fell silent. The faint ticking of the wall clock grew louder in the pause.
Luri sighed and plopped onto the beanbag near the window, dragging a folder into her lap. "I was reading over Yuin’s last update—he mentioned something strange about Lady Sachel."
Diana leaned forward. "What did he say?"
"That he found inconsistencies in her identity records. Birth dates, medical history, even her citizenship. Half of it reads like it was created retroactively. Like someone crafted a perfect background from nothing."