Chapter 20

In the dorm common room, Alex and Mercy prepare decorations for Liquor Treat while studying Lethe materials between classes. Mercy admits anxiety about the coming Friday, and Alex tries to ground them both in normal campus routines, noting how easily that stability could vanish.

Alex receives a summons from Eitan to collect a $50,000 debt at an Old Greenwich address. She texts Dawes for the Mercedes, takes the car, and drives down the coast, balancing Lethe obligations with the need to placate Eitan before the Manuscript ritual. Reaching an immaculate gated estate, she worries about surveillance and the risk of arrest.

Scaling the wall with Samson’s knuckles, Alex approaches the hilltop mansion and debates using a Gray for backup, wary after past possessions. She finds the house elegant and intimidating, then encounters Linus Reiter, a youthful, impeccably dressed man who invites her inside despite her refusal.

Inside a lavish living room, Alex states her purpose: collect the debt. Reiter, amused and unafraid, refuses to pay Eitan and probes Alex’s motives. When Alex threatens his valuables, Reiter catches a falling vase with impossible speed and remarks he brought it back from China in 1936, implying unnatural longevity.

Recognizing the danger and pressed for time, Alex abandons intimidation-by-property and swings Samson’s brass knuckles at Reiter, escalating the confrontation with a possibly inhuman opponent.