PROLOGUE.

I am warning you now. To understand the true story of this book, you will also have to read “THE W.A.Y. PROTOCOL” by Luca Sposito. Therefore, do not be stingy and buy that one as well.

I am writing this work “in execution time,” as Luca mentioned in “THE W.A.Y. PROTOCOL,” which means “in real-time” in the jargon of old computer programmers.

Thus, as my investigations progress, I will be adding new pages or entire chapters—I am not quite sure yet.

What matters is that you follow my steps and help me uncover the diabolical plot that ended with the tragic and suspicious death of Claire Simpson, whose work I hope we will eventually publish, but printed on the cozy textures of paper sheets with that book smell.

Feel free to read either of the books in whatever way or order you like. Simultaneous reading, I admit, is unusual and merely a suggestion. But, frankly, “THE W.A.Y. PROTOCOL,” read in isolation, might give the impression of being an unfinished book with some superficial passages. And in a way, it truly is. Unless you have read the manuscript I have in my hands—the originals of Luca's work—on which, likely defending himself from the panic that became part of his daily life, he made numerous handwritten notes, evidently in a great hurry given the amount of scribbles I had to decipher.

I have chosen to write the story in a diary format, dating the order in which my investigations unfold. Although they may include observations that do not necessarily follow a linear timeline.

James Alexander Smith.