Chapter 26 - "The Silent Chime"

The air in the interrogation room hung heavy, thick with the residue of fear and fatigue. Amelia Carr sat across from Detective Elijah Brandt and Marcus LeClair, wrists still swaddled in sterile bandages, faint scars visible beneath.

She said nothing at first-only stared. Her eyes were glassy, yet razor-sharp, the gaze of someone who had seen too many hours stolen, too many gears broken.

LeClair leaned forward. "Why? Why were you so important to Carrow?"

Amelia’s voice was barely above a whisper, yet it carried the weight of a thousand measured seconds.

"I wasn't important. I was inevitable. The Law doesn't choose at random. It finds the final piece - the one that completes the design."

Brandt’s eyes narrowed. “You’re talking about the Law of Precision.”

A faint smile touched Amelia’s lips. “It’s not a law. It’s a religion. A clockmaker’s creed. And it’s growing.”

-

Far from the city’s chaos, in a shadowed room lined with ancient clocks and glowing screens, the true master watched.

The Timekeeper’s hands hovered over a keyboard - movements slow, deliberate. On his monitor, a website pulsed, a countdown ticking toward zero.

A single keystroke. The page refreshed.

The countdown ended.

In its place, a new list appeared:

The Clockmakers
Priests of the Law of Precision

Names flickered in endless rows - each one disciple, a gear turning silently in the grand design.

At the top, a single symbol pulsed: a perfect clock face, with all its hands frozen in silent judgment.

The Timekeeper smiled beneath his hood.

“Let the new cycle begin.”

-

Outside, across cities and states, screens lit up with the same symbol.

The Law was no longer whispered in shadows.

It was spoken in ticks.

And it was watching.