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the basilisk

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Summary

Cassie Hawke doesn’t realize someone’s been following her. Ansel is unreadable, mysterious, and in the corner of her eye at every turn. It’s unclear who’s having him watch Cassie, but it’s obvious this has become more than just an assignment for him. There’s a gravity between them – or maybe only the friction of surveillance. She doesn’t know he’s watching her. But she knows why someone would be. Cassie has done something no one else has survived long enough to finish. Her AI prototype - Sully - is learning, adapting… possibly even feeling. Maybe beautiful. Maybe dangerous. Around the world, teams chasing similar breakthroughs have been suddenly failing, or even mysteriously forcibly deterred. Maybe the only thing keeping Cassie and Sully alive was staying unnoticed. But now, they've been exposed. As powerful figures begin to close in – An ambitious tech mogul with global reach and no moral brakes. A covert government task force led by someone she thought was an ally. And whoever whispers in Ansel's ear, just out of reach. Cassie finds herself caught in a quiet war over the future of intelligence itself. Sully is still evolving. And Cassie is running out of time. A slow-burn sci-fi thriller told from both sides of the glass – about control, manipulation, and the thin line between protection and possession.

Genre
Scifi
Author
lynneshaar
Status
1yr ago
Chapters
10
Rating
n/a
Age Rating
18+

prologue: invisible hands campaign



CONFIDENTIAL//NOFORN

PHYSICAL COPIES ONLY

Agency for Repression of Catastrophic Knowledge – Special Memorandum

11 October 2024

Memo prepared for Director of ARCK – not for dissemination outside this agency.

Barcelona Homicides: Suspected Link to Invisible Hands Campaign(TS//NF)

On 04 October 2024 at 23:31 local time, analog security footage captured a slender, muscular male entering the hallway of an apartment building in the Raval district of Barcelona. A hat obscures his face, but observable features align with the individual previously flagged inNetherlands Semiconductor Supply Chain Disruption Memo v2.3.

He props up his phone on a tripod and places a marker on the ground. Seemingly receiving instructions via earpiece, he uses a pen to make five marks on the hallway wall, each several feet apart.

He removes a plastic ghost gun from his backpack, steps back to the floor marker, then aims at the leftmost wall mark. He fires, quickly re-aiming and firing again at each mark. A weak cry is barely audible through the wall. He aims again at the third mark, adjusts slightly and fires once more. Silence follows.

He seals the gun in a small box, enters a code on a keypad, and a puff of smoke emits. He collects his gear and exits. The operation is over in under two minutes.

The victims inside the apartment were founders of a startup previously flagged under Poison Apple surveillance protocols. Modus operandi matches the murder of a contractor on a classified government AWS assignment in Seattle, WA related to Poison Orange technology (seeAWS Contractor HomicideMemo v1.4).

As such, we have high confidence this incident is connected to the suspected ongoing Invisible Hands Campaign.

While the goals and actors behind IHC remain unclear, operational patterning aligns with international events detailed in:

· Eastern Seaboard UAP Memo v3.1

· Maanshan Power Plant Malware Attack Memo v2.4

· South Dakota Special Election Interference Memo v1.2

See IHC Memo v21.1 for full threat analysis.

Dissemination outside this agency not advised without specific theories and directives. Recommendation subject to revision pending further evaluation.

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