The script didn't ask for a credit card. It asked for access to his smart-lock and GPS.

Elias didn't hesitate. He joined the files and initiated the extraction. As the progress bar crawled, his small apartment felt colder. The Gemination Group hadn't released a public catalog in a decade. 2020 was the year they went "dark," coinciding with the disappearance of three world-renowned geneticists.

Elias looked at the door. From the hallway, he heard the heavy, rhythmic thud of something that didn't walk on two legs—something that sounded exactly like the pulsing gemstone he had just seen on his screen. The "New Catalogue" wasn't a book of things to buy; it was a menu of what they were coming to build.