Ownership Marks

[SFX: Pencil writing. Heavy paper turning]

NARRATOR: Lila's drawings recorded details cameras ignored. At six twelve she had sketched a pollination drone beside the mist cabinet. Its cartridge bore a black triangle, Felix Crow's laboratory mark.

LILA QUINN: I draw what is there. I did not understand it mattered.

FELIX CROW: Your sketch was completed later. Artists revise reality for composition.

TESS ARDEN: Plants revise it too. The fern behind the cabinet bent toward your drone's work light. Its new growth fixes the direction.

NARRATOR: Felix claimed Saye stole the drone. Vera admitted the conservatory had secretly licensed ghost-orchid tissue to Crow Biologic in exchange for debt relief.

DR VERA MOSS: No wild plants were removed. We supplied cultured cells.

NOAH WREN: Collected by Emil from a protected forest whose community refused commercial use.

[SFX: Safe door. Paper folder rustle]

NARRATOR: Saye's safe held benefit-sharing agreements bearing village signatures. Tess recognized that every signature had the same hesitation at the letter R. They were forged.

TESS ARDEN: Emil discovered the license was built on false consent. He planned to announce it during tonight's bloom.

FELIX CROW: He signed the transfer himself.

DR VERA MOSS: Before he saw those agreements.

NARRATOR: The word CROW on the console was not typed by Saye. Under magnification, the screen showed four clean rectangles where gloved fingers removed condensation. Someone had written the accusation after poison entered the air.