Sha looked up at Victoria, his lower lip trembling, and whispered a single word that froze everyone in the room:
“Victoria…”
He had heard her voice.
Chapter 2: The Origin of the Device
Oliver dropped to his knees beside his son’s chair, tears streaming down his face as Sha reached out and touched his father’s cheek, hearing Oliver’s sobbing cries for the first time in his memory.
Dr. Vance stood frozen in the corner, his face drained of all color, staring at the microscopic black cylinder sitting inside a sterile stainless-steel tray.
“This is an industrial-grade acoustic dampening plug,” Victoria noted, inspecting the object under a magnifying lamp. “It carries a micro-serial number etched into the titanium base plate: Vance Medical Technologies.”
Oliver slowly stood up, turning his eyes toward Dr. Vance. The warmth in his expression vanished entirely, replaced by an absolute, razor-sharp fury.
“Alistair,” Oliver said, his voice dropping into a dangerous, icy register. “Your private research lab manufactures custom medical acoustic dampeners for high-noise defense contracts. You placed this inside my son’s ear when he was two years old during his initial checkup.”
