CHAPTER 17 — THE MENTAL MAP
[Alistair's Perspective — That Night, 11:47 PM]
Alistair had not left the archive until 7:30 PM.
He had documented everything with obsessive precision:
Photographs from 47 different angles of the basement
Exact measurements of the distances between key elements
Trigonometric calculations to verify alignments
A three-dimensional diagram of the space with marked vectors
But none of that mattered as much as what he had written on the last pages of his notebook:
FUNDAMENTAL SHIFT IN THE SYSTEM
Laws 1–4: Targeted victims
Law 5: The space and the observer
The killer has evolved.
He no longer merely eliminates "human noise."
Now he manipulates how we perceive reality.
Critical question:
If the Fifth Law was about reorienting my perception…
what will the Sixth do?
Disturbing hypothesis:
Each Law prepares me for the next.
Like progressive exercises in a training manual.
What is he training me for?
---
Now, back in his apartment, Alistair was building something he had never done before:
A complete 3D model of the conceptual space of the Twelve Laws.
He had bought cardboard, wooden sticks, thread, and colored pushpins.
In his living room, on the table he normally used for eating (it had been weeks since he had eaten there), he was constructing a physical representation of the system.
Twelve circular sectors. Each one thirty degrees.
Inside each sector where a Law had already been executed, he placed markers:
Sector 1 (0–30°): FIRST LAW — Contradiction
Victim: Elias Warren
Object: Closed dictionary
Angle: 45°
Thread color: Red
Sector 2 (30–60°): SECOND LAW — Hypocrisy
Victim: Mara Leland
Object: Unopened ethics book
Angle: 60°
Thread color: Orange
Sector 3 (60–90°): THIRD LAW — Hollow Self-Sufficiency
Victim: Jonas Mikkelsen
Object: Hollow dumbbell
Angle: 30°
Thread color: Yellow
Sector 4 (90–120°): FOURTH LAW — The Interval
Victim: Clara Neumann
Object: Split business card
Angle: 15°
Thread color: Green
Sector 5 (120–150°): FIFTH LAW — Reorientation
Victim: Marian Vogel (absence)
Object: Empty clipboard
Angle: 37° and 43° (double vector)
Thread color: Blue
He connected each sector with threads representing the conceptual relationships between the Laws.
And then he saw something that took his breath away.
The threads, when connected according to the logical relationships he had identified, did not form a random network.
They formed a spiral.
A spiral that began at Sector 1 and twisted inward, toward the center of the circle.
Toward an empty point in the middle.
The point where, presumably, the Twelfth Law would be.
"He isn't building a system for the world," Alistair murmured.
"He's building a system that converges toward a specific final point."
But what was at that point?
Another murder? A revelation? A final message?
He took a photo of the complete model and sent it to his computer for later analysis.
Then he collapsed onto the couch, exhausted but unable to sleep.
His phone vibrated. A text from Inspector Vargas:
"They found Marian Vogel's body. Industrial landfill, north zone. Death by asphyxiation, approximately 36 hours before her 'disappearance' from the parking lot. I'll send details tomorrow. Get some rest."
Alistair read the message three times.
Marian had died 36 hours BEFORE she disappeared from the parking lot.
That meant the entire archive scene—the observation point, the pencil's vector, the clipboard—had been prepared while Marian was already dead.
The "disappearance" from the parking lot had never happened.
It was merely a way to direct attention toward the archive at the correct moment.
It had all been theater.
An elaborate staging not to conceal the crime—
but to create a specific pedagogical experience.
Alistair felt something he had never felt in his career:
He was not chasing a killer who was fleeing.
He was following a curriculum.
And he had just completed the fifth lesson.
He stood and walked back to his three-dimensional model.
Seven empty sectors remained.
Seven Laws yet to come.
And the spiral of threads converging inexorably toward the center.
"What's in there?" he asked the model aloud.
"What happens when I reach the end?"
The model, of course, did not answer.
But a chilling thought crossed his mind:
What if the Twelfth Law isn't about another victim?
What if the Twelfth Law is about me?
He shook his head, dismissing the idea as paranoia born of exhaustion.
But the thought remained, like a planted seed.
Because if the killer was training him…
For what, exactly?
---
[Aurelian's Perspective — Simultaneously, 11:52 PM]
Aurelian was in his apartment, preparing the next phase with surgical meticulousness.
The Sixth Law required an entirely different kind of research.
It was no longer about observing potential victims or physical spaces.
It was about investigating Alistair Draeven with the same depth he had applied to every previous victim.
His computer displayed multiple open windows:
Public property records (to determine Alistair's exact address)
Case resolution history (to understand his cognitive patterns)
Social media (almost nonexistent, but still useful)
Recent credit card purchases (legally gray, but accessible with the right tools)
Over the last five days, he had built a complete profile:
ALISTAIR DRAEVEN — DEEP PROFILE
Routines:
Coffee: 4–6 cups daily, always black, never with sugar
Sleep: 3–4 hours on average, fragmented pattern
Eating: irregular, favors food requiring no preparation
Exercise: long walks without a fixed pattern, always between 11:00 PM–1:00 AM
Frequent Locations:
Apartment (17th Floor, Meridian Tower)
Office (Police Department, Room 304)
Café "El Punto" (three times a week)
Technical bookstore "Archimedes" (once a week)
Revealing Recent Purchases:
3D modeling materials (cardboard, sticks, thread)
Three books on sacred geometry
Advanced spatial analysis software
Subscription to a criminal psychology journal
Critical Pattern: Checks his personal email every night at 11:45 PM ± 3 minutes.
Accesses it from his personal computer, not the department's.
Aurelian closed the profile file and opened his notebook of Laws.
On the page for the Sixth Law, he wrote:
SIXTH LAW: THE SILENT INVASION
Phase 1: Prove I can enter his space undetected
Phase 2: Leave evidence only he will notice
Phase 3: Observe his reaction and calibrate for the Seventh Law
Method:
No physical violence.
No direct threat.
Only… presence.
The message:
"I was always closer than you thought.
Your mental fortress has doors you left open."
He stood and walked to his own window.
From his apartment, he could not see Alistair's building directly—but he knew its exact direction.
Seventeen kilometers to the northeast.
Seventeenth floor.
East-facing window.
Probably awake at this very moment, obsessively analyzing the case.
"Three weeks, Inspector," Aurelian said quietly.
"In three weeks, you will learn that your mind is not as private as you think."
He closed the curtain and returned to his desk.
The Sixth Law would require absolute precision.
Because for the first time, he would leave evidence outside a crime scene.
He would leave evidence in Alistair's daily life.
Something so subtle that the police department would dismiss it as coincidence.
But something so exact that Alistair would know—
with absolute certainty—that it was not accidental.
Aurelian smiled.
The game was entering its most delicate phase.
The phase where hunter and prey begin to exchange roles.
Where the observer realizes that he, too, is being observed.
And where the line between pursuer and pursued becomes so blurred that it no longer matters.
Only the system matters.
And both of them were now completely inside it.