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VYR.

My stomach tightened.

“What is that?”

“An archived biological-transfer record,” Anik said.

I leaned closer.

The first side showed Veyr’s military biological file. Not a compatibility profile. Medical collection dates, genetic markers, sample-storage locations. The other side showed a reproductive accession number.

Different identifier.

Same specimen origin.

I stared at it. Then the pieces clicked. “Oh.”

Veyr looked at me. “What?”

I pointed toward the screen. “You were right. You were never registered for matching.”

“I know.”

“Your sample was.”

He went still.

Anik enlarged the transfer history. “After Veyr was declared deceased, archived biological material from his military record was released under an authorized deceased-warrior research request.”

I followed the dates.

Military storage.

Transfer.

Reproductive accession.

Then a different identifier attached before laboratory intake.

“They relabeled it.”

“Before it reached the reproductive laboratory,” Anik said.

A lab technician receiving the sample would not have seen Veyr. They would have seen whatever identity the accession system told them belonged to the specimen.

Exactly what I had suspected.

Only now it was no longer a theory.

I looked at Veyr. “That’s why Sera’n had you in his comparison set.”

His gaze remained on the screen. “He wasn’t looking for me.”

“No.” I traced the transfer path with one finger. “He was following sample histories. Somewhere along the way, he found the real identifier underneath the one the reproductive system had been given.”

Anik opened two more records.

More Ghost designations.