Smoke & Lavender Gambit

In a world where the air you breathe is tracked as data and your DNA is basically public property, the line between biology and political manipulation has completely fallen apart. The Hub has always hinted at the Master Compatibility Index, a system praised as the key to social order, but something darker is starting to surface, something that threatens to reveal what is really holding everything together. At the heart of it all is Eden Vance, a product of the Citadel’s elite medical program, polished and precise on the surface, while secretly operating as the Omega Defense Force’s most dangerous Neural Anchor. Trained to disappear inside the system itself, Eden survives behind layers of chemical suppressants and mental conditioning, constantly fighting down the instincts tied to his classification. Everything changes the moment he collides with Xander Valen, a sharp-tongued, brilliant skeptic and heir to the most powerful political dynasty in the nation. Xander is not interested in relationships. He is chasing the Origin Keys, proof that the genetic surveillance network is not a natural step forward, but a carefully designed cage. In this story, the most dangerous weapon on the table is not code or virus, but the terrifying decision to care for the one man you were engineered to destroy.