Angol
Three children are expected at Helen Ward's house. Only two arrive.
The third, Owen Price, has vanished behind an emergency custody order bearing archivist Julian Fayette's forged signature. The order leads Julian and journalist Mara Vale into a hidden network of unofficial residences built to shelter children from ORISON and its successor programmes.
The Houses saved lives. They also falsified deaths, severed families and made protection indistinguishable from abduction.
As federal receiver Adrian Kells moves to consolidate the surviving cohort, Candidate Twelve reactivates the network and begins relocating children beyond lawful reach. Both sides demand the same thing from Julian: a complete map. One calls it accountable custody. The other calls it rescue.
To find Owen without delivering every refuge to a new authority, Julian must refuse the role every system has prepared for him-and let the children choose separately, even when their choices leave the pattern unresolved.
The House of Missing Sides is Book Three of The Cryptocracy Cycle, an archival conspiracy thriller about institutional power, secret custody and the danger of protection without consent.
