Elaine Marsh's story ran six weeks later, once Lucien's health had stabilized enough that neither of them worried the stress of its publication might trigger another crisis, and once Ezra's formal settlement with the organization had cleared every remaining legal hurdle Roan's careful negotiations could manage.

The Hidden Trade in Human Memory, the headline read, spread across the front page of a publication considerably more prestigious than either of them had dared hope Elaine's initial interest might eventually secure, and the article that followed — thorough, meticulously sourced, careful never to name Lucien directly beyond a single anonymized reference to "a prominent family whose research first exposed the practice" —...