The Camera Card

Her real sentence came after she showed how authentic fragments made synthetic accusations harder to deny. The cash envelope never existed. Neither did Mei's scene.

The card also recorded Gavin entering the studio after the demonstration and ordering Dean to duplicate the source for "bid resilience testing." Dean's sale made the copy available; Gavin's instruction created the authorized path.

Lila's receipt and Petra's logs showed the same path used against prior targets. Omar's distribution graph connected it to Halcyon payments. No single artifact carried attribution. Together they did.

Dean asked that his cooperation remain off camera. Aria refused secrecy but agreed the hearing would state his actions without broadcasting operational details.

Jonah tested the live source comparison. He and Aria stood shoulder to shoulder at the console. When his hand approached hers, he stopped.

"Run it," she said.

The comparison worked.

Dean's phone received Gavin's final command: Release all sources. Blame Chen's audit tool.

The message carried the same executive identifier Petra had preserved.

Gavin had just authenticated the chain himself.