Chapter 7 - The Proxy Signature
The hallway grew deathly quiet, save for the faint hum of the HVAC system pushing warm air through the vents. Daniel looked at Clara as if seeing a total stranger wearing a familiar mask. The woman who had shared his bed for seven years, who had held his hand in hospital waiting rooms and laughed at his terrible morning jokes, was the warden of his intellectual prison.
"You signed the proxy," Daniel said, his voice hollow, stripped of all anger and left with only a profound, crushing exhaustion.
Clara nodded slowly, her red hair falling forward to shield her face from his gaze. "When my father died, Julian took control of our family trust. He said your firm was going under, Daniel. He showed me the bankruptcy papers. He said the only way to save our home, to give Lily a future, was to sign the architectural integration rider."
"You sold my mind for a mortgage," Daniel said, the words tasting like ash in his mouth.
"I saved your life," Clara sobbed, finally breaking down as she clutched the lapel of her cream blouse. "The people who owned the debt on your firm weren't corporate competitors, Daniel. They were liquidation syndicates. They don't buy companies; they erase the people who run them. Julian gave us a shield, even if it was made of glass."
Agent Vance picked up the silver flash drive, slipping it back into the inner pocket of his charcoal trench coat. "Mrs. Reynolds is being entirely honest for once. Your intellectual property made you a target, Mr. Reynolds. We simply repurposed your brilliance for the greater stability of the urban grid."
Daniel took a step toward Vance, ignoring the physical threat the agent represented. "Where is Lily's room wired?"
Vance paused, tilting his head slightly. "Every room, Mr. Reynolds. From the baseboards to the smoke detectors. Children have remarkably pure cognitive baselines. We use her neural responses as a control variable to ensure your data stream remains uncorrupted by emotional stress."
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Before Daniel could lunge at the agent, a sharp, terrified scream echoed from the kitchen down the hall.
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