Reclassified

Benjamin Smith was a freelance investigator. He went into Hargrove Institute voluntarily — or so the paperwork says. Three weeks later they reclassified his status. After that, no external correspondence. No visitors. No appeals.

Before they cut him off, he managed one thing: he found a flaw in the institute's internal reporting system. A way to embed a message that would survive even if they scrubbed his file entirely.

We never found Benjamin's report. But we found another one — filed through the same system, around the same time. Patient Elara V. Morse. Case HIBH-2381.

The system left something behind.

We also have what we know about Benjamin. His case file metadata. His transfer notes — written by them, about him, the way they wanted the story to look.

The truth is still in there. Somewhere.