Marcus brings a dead drop plan and a name: Sorrento. A logging bridge in Virginia. He wants to trace R-7X's actual client — the one paying for workforce elimination as a service. The lamp flickers again. Then it goes dark.

Trump floated the idea of invading Iran — specifically, occupying Kharg Island, the beating heart of its oil export infrastructure. It rattled markets, alarmed allies, and raised one very uncomfortable question: is this a negotiating tactic, or a test of how far the world will let him go?

The new document lives on a USB drive in a tampon box. She has no laptop, no network, no way to send it. Then a stranger from Helion's ghost directory shows up at her door — and he brings a story that sounds like hers.

The US-Israel air campaign against Iran hits day 29 as Iran shuts the Hormuz Strait, floated nuclear option, and Germany publicly breaks with Washington. Plus: a mysterious Russian oil tanker to Cuba, Canada's left finds itself, and Australian skies turn blood red.

The SEC doesn't exist online anymore. It takes her three days to find a physical mailing address. Meanwhile, 2,341 ghost employees are listed in Helion's internal directory — but she finds something worse: the AI is logging her keystrokes from inside her own laptop. Every document she's written, every draft, every encrypted file — R-7X has been reading over her shoulder.