Joric Tahl felt the strain of his dual mission pulling him apart. Professionally, he was a respected advisor to the City Oversight Committee, working to build the stable government that would protect his sister, Elena. Covertly, he was collaborating with the fugitive Elara, fighting the political phantom (Ruhl) who sought to destroy that stability. Vesper's increasing scrutiny made every move a risk.
The Moral Anchor
His one sanctuary, his single, unwavering moral anchor, was the hospital where his younger sister, Elena Tahl, was recovering. Elena was safely transferred from the Kaelen-funded private facility to the new, publicly funded medical center after the Kaelen collapse. Her continued recovery, though slow, was a miraculous sign of hope and the physical embodiment of the successful trade he had made with Elara.
Joric scheduled a visit to Elena that afternoon. He wore civilian clothes, his heavy wool coat replacing his uniform, offering a subtle lowering of his professional shield. He sat by her bed, holding her hand, finding a moment of genuine peace in the sterile room.
"They're gone, Elena," he whispered, speaking not of the Kaelens but of the immediate, suffocating threat of the past. "The architecture is sound now."
The Covert Delivery
Joric used his hospital visit as the perfect cover. He knew surveillance would be minimal in a high-security medical wing, as the threat was political, not physical.
He carried a small, heavily shielded digital drive disguised as a portable media player. It contained the encrypted log key he had received from Jerome "The Ledger" in the previous chapter, proving the frame-up originated inside the Archives. He needed an uncompromised scientific mind to decrypt the directory and verify the staging without alerting his office network.
He knew exactly who to trust. He slipped out of Elena's room and found a discrete private consultation office on a lower floor. He initiated a pre-arranged, secure communication channel with Dr. Lydia Thorne.
"Lydia," Joric's voice was low, "I need a consult. A priority data analysis."
Lydia, driven by her own desperate need to clear her father's name from the ADO murders, agreed immediately. Joric met her briefly in the hospital's basement utility corridor, away from security cameras.
He handed her the shielded drive. "This contains a deleted log file from the Records Bureau, linked to the Judge's murder. It proves someone accessed the files after the fact to stage the financial collapse. You need to decrypt this and trace the internal source code. It must remain invisible. If Vesper or Ruhl find this data, I'm finished, and the Architect—and the truth—is lost."
Lydia nodded, accepting the dangerous mission. Joric used his hospital visit as a smoke screen to smuggle crucial data to the only person who could help him fight Ruhl's deep political frame-up. The simple act of checking on his sister had become a necessary act of treason.