Page 394 of Mercy Written in Blood

"Records of the children sent away. Their names. Their descendants. The locations of the bloodline keys."

Mina stared at the page.

"You said the children escaped."

"They did."

"Then someone from inside the Takahara helped track them."

Renji's face had become unreadable. Haruki knew what it concealed now. Not coldness. Impact.

"The Keeper should have died in the massacre," Renji said.

"Should have?" Mori asked.

"The office was hereditary."

Haruki understood before Mori did.

"Another line survived."

Renji nodded. Not one of the seven descendants required to open the deeper Archive. Something closer. A branch that knew where those descendants were. A family built to preserve Takahara continuity. Now represented inside the coalition that destroyed them.

"Hayashi identified this mark as current?" Haruki asked.

"Yes."

"How current?"

Mori turned the page. A transaction record. Recent. Less than a month old. Payment through a medical charity to an Accord contractor. The same contractor who had altered surveillance around the Takahara estate before the first chamber opened.

Haruki looked towards Renji.

"Someone knew we would find it."

"Yes."

"They were watching the estate before the Accord reacted."

"Yes."

"And they have access to the descendant records."

"Perhaps."

The word carried no reassurance.

Mori said, "There is more." He placed a photograph on the table. Security footage. An airport arrival hall. The image had been enlarged until the edges blurred. A man in a grey coat walked beneath a departure board. Face turned partly away. One hand carried a narrow wooden case. The crest marked its side. The Keeper of Lineage. The timestamp was from six days earlier. Haneda Airport. The man had entered Tokyo before the Archive opened.

"He knew," Haruki said.

Renji stared at the photograph.

"Yes."

"Do you recognise him?"

"No."