The Poison Garden

[SFX: Pounding on door. Warning alarm; water mist spray]

NARRATOR: Felix had loaded the final cartridge with monkshood to destroy the orchids and any tissue evidence. Now he stood inside his own trap.

FELIX CROW: Override the door.

TESS ARDEN: The system recognizes only the curator's print.

DR VERA MOSS: Emil registered me as emergency custodian.

NARRATOR: Vera opened the door while Noah cut the humidifier. Tess entered in a respirator and pulled Felix beneath the low irrigation jets. Saving him did not weaken the case; it gave him lungs with the same toxin pattern as Saye.

[SFX: Ambulance siren. Respirator breathing]

LILA QUINN: He tried to kill the collection after killing Emil.

TESS ARDEN: He tried to convert living evidence into loss. Ownership was the only language he trusted.

NARRATOR: Police recovered the roof case, drone battery, violet grease, and Felix's missing milling cartridge. He claimed Vera authorized every step. Vera produced the original license meeting recording, in which Felix promised that no patent would be filed without community approval.

DR VERA MOSS: I compromised the conservatory. I will answer for that. I will not lend him my guilt as camouflage.

NARRATOR: At dawn, Saye's email reached regulators, journalists, and the communities named in the forged agreements. Felix's patents froze before his lawyers could move them.