Tangier
A man matching Alias’s description was seen drinking mint tea near the port. He wore a green scarf and wire-frame glasses. He paid in cash, tipped in silence, and vanished before anyone could ask a question. Two hours later, the same man was reported in Oslo.

Montevideo
An address linked to a dormant academic publishing account posted a new file titled Fragments on Finality. It contained seven aphorisms, each referencing non-custodial timekeeping, Babylonian number theory, and Borges. It was signed: A.

It was deleted six minutes later. But the mirrors had already begun.

Accra
A man claiming to be a UN liaison reported that Alias had died in 2019. Natural causes. No body.

Two forums erupted in debate. One claimed the death was a cover-up. Another claimed Alias never existed in the first place.

Zurich
Steenberg received a dossier of sightings, all with partial biometric matches.
He didn’t look through them. He just said:

“He’s gone. The system is the problem now.”

Fragmented Post (unsigned, NOSTR relay)
“You don’t kill a builder. You dissolve the blueprint.”
“Alias was not the author. Just the first reader.”
“The text continues.”

In a coastal town south of Naples, a child found a weatherproof USB key in a cracked wall. The files were corrupted. The last readable folder was labeled: Initiate_Luck.

No one knew what it meant.

But the signal pinged.

And something drew again.