Chapter 1The Dead Manโs Evidence
Rain hammered the city of Novaris like bullets against steel.
Neon lights flickered across flooded streets while giant digital billboards repeated the same sentence over and over:
โJustice sees everything.โ
Inside Central Homicide Bureau, silence filled the investigation floor.
Detectives stood frozen around a holographic screen.
On the screenโฆ
a dead man was walking.
Detective Elias Vane stared carefully.
The footage timestamp read:
11:42 PM.
But according to the official autopsy report, businessman Adrian Keller died at:
9:13 PM.
Two hours earlier.
Yet there he was.
Alive.
Walking calmly through an underground subway station.
Elias narrowed his eyes.
โPlay it again.โ
The hologram restarted.
Adrian Keller stepped through the crowd wearing a black coat. His face looked pale. Nervous. He stopped beside a vending machineโฆ then slowly turned toward the station camera.
And smiled.
Not a normal smile.
A warning.
Then the footage glitched violently.
Static swallowed the screen.
When the image returnedโฆ
Adrian was gone.
The entire station stood empty.
No passengers.
No sound.
Nothing.
A cold feeling crawled up Eliasโs spine.
โThat footage is impossible,โ said Officer Mira Sol. โForensics confirmed itโs real.โ
Elias remained silent.
Impossible things had started happening ever since the government introduced the new justice system:
PHAR.
A predictive artificial intelligence designed to stop crime before it happened.
The public loved it.
Crime rates dropped.
Courts became faster.
Police no longer searched for suspects.
PHAR selected them automatically.
But Elias hated it.
Because six years agoโฆ
PHAR sentenced his father to death.
And three days later, the crime PHAR predicted never happened.
Too late.
The execution had already been carried out.
Since then, Elias trusted evidence more than systems.
And right nowโฆ
the evidence was screaming.
โWhere was the body found?โ Elias asked.
Mira tapped her wrist screen.
โOld District subway tunnel. Lower sector.โ
Elias frowned.
โThat station was abandoned years ago.โ
โExactly.โ
The room fell quiet.
Then suddenlyโ
A notification flashed red across every screen in the bureau.
โ PRIORITY ALERT โ
CLASSIFIED CASE ACTIVATED
CASE: PHAR
The entire floor froze.
Even senior officers looked terrified.
Mira whispered carefully.
โIโve never seen that code beforeโฆโ
But Elias had.
Once.
When his father died.
A hidden elevator unlocked at the far end of the bureau.
Black armored officers stepped out silently.
No badges.
No names.
Only silver scales printed on their uniforms.
One of them spoke coldly.
โDetective Elias Vane.โ
Elias stood.
โYouโre being reassigned.โ
โTo where?โ
The officer stared directly into him.
โCourtroom 9.โ
The air changed instantly.
Several detectives looked away.
One officer quietly muttered a prayer.
Elias noticed.
Fear.
Real fear.
โWhat is Courtroom 9?โ Elias asked.
Nobody answered.
The black-uniformed officers escorted him toward the elevator.
As the doors closed, Mira suddenly grabbed Eliasโs arm.
Her voice trembled.
โIf they take you thereโฆโ
She swallowed hard.
โโฆdonโt let them read your file.โ
Before Elias could ask what she meantโ
The elevator doors slammed shut.
Descending.
Down.
Far below the city.
The numbers on the wall disappeared after Basement 20.
Then Basement 40.
Thenโฆ
nothing.
Only darkness.
Finallyโ
The elevator stopped.
DING.
The doors slowly opened.
Elias stepped into a massive underground courtroom hidden beneath Novaris itself.
The room looked ancient compared to the modern world above.
Dark wooden walls.
Bronze scales.
Hundreds of empty seats.
At the center stood a single judge beneath dim golden light.
Judge Orion Vale.
The most feared man in the legal system.
He never lost a case.
Because somehowโฆ
he already knew every verdict before trials began.
Orion slowly lifted his eyes toward Elias.
โYou took longer than expected.โ
Elias stepped forward carefully.
โWhy am I here?โ
The judge pressed a button.
A holographic case file appeared in the air.
CASE PHAR.
Then Eliasโs blood froze.
Because under the suspect sectionโฆ
was his own photograph.
Judge Orion folded his hands calmly.
โDetective Elias Vane.โ
His voice echoed through the courtroom.
โYou are officially under investigation for a future murder.โ
Silence.
Elias stared in disbelief.
โWhat?โ
The judgeโs expression never changed.
โThe victim dies in four days.โ
A pause.
โAnd according to PHARโฆโ
He looked directly into Eliasโs eyes.
โโฆyou kill them.โ
The courtroom lights suddenly shut off.
Darkness swallowed everything.
Then a distorted voice whispered through hidden speakers:
โThe future has already testified.โ
TO BE CONTINUED.
