The incident at the Institute—an event that had skirted the very edge of genocide—was buried with ruthless efficiency.
Not a whisper of truth seeped through the reinforced walls of that research fortress. Official reports painted the day in vague strokes: a minor technical failure, an exercise gone slightly awry, a security drill that stretched longer than anticipated.
Yet for those who had been there, who had smelled the sharp tang of blood, who had felt the tremor in their bones as alarms wailed and lives teetered on the brink, the silence imposed afterward was almost crueler than the chaos itself.
