EPISODE 10: THE ARTIFACT ## CHAPTER 1: THE INTEL Brandon had spent three decades building a network of informants. One of them worked inside Mercer Enterprises—a mid-level accountant who had stumbled onto financial records that didn't make sense and had been feeding information to the watchers for six years. "The artifact is real," he reported. "She keeps it in a vault at her estate. Biometric locks, armed guards, state-of-the-art security. No one gets close." "What is it?" "I've only seen photos in restricted files. It looks like a piece of stone—black, irregular, covered in symbols that don't match any known language." "One of the boundary markers," Brandon said. "The original seals that the Potawatomi used. If she has one..." "She can communicate with what's on the other side." "Worse. She can weaken the seal from both directions." --- ## CHAPTER 2: THE PLAN They couldn't destroy what they couldn't reach. Tamara assembled a team: herself, two of Morrison's specialists, and—surprisingly—her mother. "You're sixty-one years old," Tamara protested. "And I've been doing this since before you were born. I know Elena Mercer's type. I know how she thinks." "Mom—" "Don't 'Mom' me. I'm coming." The plan was straightforward: infiltrate Mercer's estate during a charity gala she was hosting, locate the vault, neutralize the artifact. Simple. Except nothing about this had...