Before me, a wall of screens displays three feeds. On the first, an intricate celestial map tracking cosmic events and alignments. On the second, curated data fed into the algorithm—police reports, medical histories, psychological evaluations, demographic lifestyle tracking; even scraped social media and dating app data. And on the third, a graph labeled Quantum Entanglement Entropy.
Just to check the system, I highlight a node: Annihilation 8, Jake Marlow
Age: 64
DOB: October 26 (Scorpio)
Terminal Prognosis: 6 months
Criminal Profile: Serial rape / homicide
Entanglement Entropy at Death: 54.2% resonance
Correlating Cosmic Events: Neutron Star Merger GW261023 (Gravitational waves detected by LIGO/Virgo) & U Scorpii Outburst (Recurrent Nova)
A linked article shows Marlow’s censored body arranged as the Scorpius constellation. The instant his consciousness collapsed, gravitational waves from a distant neutron-star merger rippled through space, coinciding with the stellar outburst of U Scorpii.
These extreme celestial alignments time echoes at the boundary. Patterns I can capture, decode.
Symmetry is crucial.
A ritual that has to replicate the exact conditions of that night.
Fingers hovering over the keyboard, I hesitate, waiting to feel the slightest twinge of guilt. That visceral twist in my gut which used to plague me in the early days of my research.
Now, nothing.
Resigned, I initiate the search. It scours databases. It cross-references criminal profiles against predicted astronomical alignments. It’s what Leo and the board are so desperate to get their hands on.
My quantum algorithm.
I strip off my gloves and rake a hand through my hair, tension gathering at the base of my neck.
Obsession is physical, something I feel in my flesh like a fever, a madness infecting my cells.
