Story Details
In a possible future-era adventure, an older Dean and Maya are brought into a high-security investigation after the Wayfinder Crystal disappears from an international research facility. The Crystal helps synchronize advanced mapping, communications and emergency-response routes, and every security record appears to identify an obvious theft. But Maya notices that the timestamps do not agree. Dean discovers that the facility's physical security was not defeated. It was deliberately redirected. Their investigation takes them through secure laboratories, archive vaults, laser-grid corridors, rooftop routes, holographic maps, encrypted messages and carefully planted decoys. Soon they realize the missing Crystal may only be a distraction. Someone is using the investigation itself to reach the facility's master routing cipher. Dean and Maya must determine who they can trust and stop the real operation before the network is compromised. A technology-driven mystery about observation, evidence, trust and discovering that the obvious target is not always the real one.