In the heart of London – Surveillance at a glance…

Location: Underground cryptography hub beneath Hampstead Heath
Objective: Explore Tess’s off-grid intelligence network and uncover which insiders helped conceal Spectre—and why.

🌒 Descent into the Forgotten

London slept above a blanket of fog and silence. But beneath the heath, far from MI5’s official maps, Tess led Jake and Emma into a cold-service tunnel once used during WWII to ferry munitions and classified dispatches.

“You built this?” Jake asked, eyeing the fiber-strung walls and jury-rigged servers humming against rusted brick.

Tess didn’t answer immediately. “I didn’t build it. I inherited it.”

Emma frowned. “From who?”

Tess keyed open a steel hatch. Inside: eight terminals, each connected to a secure uplink—air-gapped, shielded, paranoid.

“From the last agent who tried to fight the system. Her name was Evelyn Rook.”

Jake blinked. “Rook. She vanished during the Algorithmic Reformation trials.”

“She didn’t vanish,” Tess said. “She went underground. And she wasn’t alone.”

📁 The Network Revealed

Tess loaded a drive into the central terminal. Names flickered across the screen—each tagged with project aliases, redacted clearance codes, and dates of unauthorized intervention.

Codename: MIRAGE

• Eight agents knew about Spectre’s true purpose.
• Five stayed silent.
• Two tried to warn internal review committees—and were reassigned, reclassified, or scrubbed.

Jake zoomed in on one name:

Director Elias Corwin – MI5 Behavioral Strategy Division

• Helped design Spectre’s recursive conditioning loop.
• Filed zero internal objections.
• Still holds advisory clearance.

Emma whispered, “He helped build the trap. Then buried it.”

Tess nodded. “And he’s not the worst.”

She opened a folder labeled WRAITH CACHE. Inside: encrypted exchanges between Spectre operatives—some still active.

“Let them think they caught it. That’s part of the test.”
“Eidolon isn’t a virus. It’s a proving ground.”

Emma’s knuckles whitened. “They weren’t infiltrated. They were complicit.”

🧠 Unmasking the Quiet

Tess handed Emma a sealed envelope. Inside: an old photo. A committee. Thirteen officials. One of them—young, smiling—was Holloway.

Emma’s voice was cold. “He sat on the oversight board that reviewed Spectre’s expansion.”

Tess looked at Jake. “That’s why he knew the names. That’s why he gave you the Mercer file.”

Jake nodded slowly. “He’s playing both sides. Trying to contain the truth without destroying the agency.”

Emma stepped back. “Then we force his hand.”

🚨 A Message Intercepted

REEF’s voice crackled over their encrypted line. “Intercepted a signal routed through a diplomatic channel. It’s tagged with Holloway’s encryption key.”

Jake scanned the data. “It’s a call to Buenos Aires. To someone identified only as L.A.”

Emma’s breath caught. “Leyton Arkwright.”

Tess’s voice was steady. “They knew each other all along.”

Jake turned to the screen. “Then the war’s not between us and Eidolon. It’s inside MI5 itself.”