Chapter 127: Claire Cross

Claire Cross had spent most of her adult life outside the country. Unlike her father, she was not a behavioral scientist. She studied comparative literature, worked briefly in digital publishing, and then disappeared from professional records around the same period as the mysterious server access.

Freya almost laughed at the absurdity. "Of course she worked in publishing."

Louis ignored the coincidence and asked Derek to verify everything.

Claire was alive. Current immigration records showed occasional travel, but her permanent residence was unclear. Her last known employer had been a small experimental publishing company that shut down after only two years.

Nadia remembered Claire as intelligent and fiercely protective of Julian. She blamed Project Northwind for worsening his stress before his death.

"Would she steal his authentication token?" Louis asked.

Nadia hesitated. "If she believed something in the archive belonged to him, yes."

Mercer found another clue in the server logs. The downloaded file had been converted from Northwind's internal format into EPUB before leaving the system.

That conversion strongly suggested publication rather than corporate analysis.

Freya's old-world novel had been an EPUB-based web publication.

Again, the pieces approached an impossible conclusion without crossing the final gap.

Derek traced Claire's former publishing company. Its name was Crosswind Digital.

One archived employee profile listed Claire's editorial pseudonym.

North Wind.

Freya stared at the screen.

Nadia closed her eyes. "So she used her father's project name."

The author identity from Freya's previous world now had a plausible owner in this one.

But Freya had seen author notes written as though North Wind were actively publishing in her world. How could Claire Cross have done that from here?

They contacted Claire through an attorney using an old family email still forwarding to her.

No reply came that day.

That evening, Freya and Louis returned home. Freya cooked almost mechanically, her mind stuck on Claire.

"Suppose she somehow published the story," Freya said. "Why?"

Louis considered it. "Maybe she wanted to expose Northwind without exposing the real names."

"But the version I read used your real names."

That weakened the theory.

Freya opened her old plot notebook and wrote CLAIRE CROSS — NORTH WIND beneath the list of unresolved questions.

Her author inbox pinged.

For a moment she feared another Mercer-style message.

Instead, the sender identified herself plainly.

Claire Cross.

The email contained one sentence: I have been waiting years for someone to ask me about that book.

Derek also confirmed that Claire had no known financial relationship with Adrian during the relevant period. That did not clear her of every possibility, but it weakened the idea that she had been publishing on his behalf. For now, she looked more like another person trying to escape the consequences of Northwind than someone extending Adrian's control.

Derek also confirmed that Claire had no known financial relationship with Adrian during the relevant period. That did not clear her of every possibility, but it weakened the idea that she had been publishing on his behalf. For now, she looked more like another person trying to escape the consequences of Northwind than someone extending Adrian's control.

Derek also confirmed that Claire had no known financial relationship with Adrian during the relevant period. That did not clear her of every possibility, but it weakened the idea that she had been publishing on his behalf. For now, she looked more like another person trying to escape the consequences of Northwind than someone extending Adrian's control.

Derek also confirmed that Claire had no known financial relationship with Adrian during the relevant period. That did not clear her of every possibility, but it weakened the idea that she had been publishing on his behalf. For now, she looked more like another person trying to escape the consequences of Northwind than someone extending Adrian's control.