Chapter 3 - Voices Through the Vent
Night brought no quiet to the county block, only muffled coughs and ventilation hum. Sitting on his thin foam cot, Leo examined the object. It wasn't just a pendant; it was a milled brass cylinder with a concealed USB core and a physical high-security bypass key. Toby's mother, Elena, had worked corporate logistics for Mercer before vanishing. She hadn't vanished; she had run, leaving the fatal proof on their boy. Around midnight, the rusted exhaust vent beside Leo's bunk hissed. A voice drifted through the ductwork from the adjacent solitary unit—quiet, gravelly, and deliberate. ""Vance. Keep your head down tonight."" It was Frank Miller, the senior guard whose nephew had been killed in Mercer's district two years ago. ""Mercer found out your boy came to visit. He knows what Elena left with him. Transfer orders just cleared dispatch. You aren't going to the courthouse tomorrow. You're going to Blackwood Annex."" Blackwood was a privately managed graveyard where prisoners had accidental overdoses. Leo gripped the brass cylinder until it cut into his palm, realizing his son was currently sleeping unprotected in an apartment Mercer already owned.
