He thought the job was freedom. Then he found his name on a custody log.In Custody Chain, Darius Blackman returns to Ledger City with a social suspense novel about reentry, labor exploitation, public contracts, warehouse logistics, forced labor, and the systems that rename captivity as opportunity.Leon Vale needs the warehouse job to be a step forward.Recently released from county custody, carrying debt, family responsibility, and the hope of rebuilding his life, Leon accepts work at Meridian Civic Logistics under the language of community supervision, structured rehabilitation, transitional work, and public-service logistics. The job is supposed to help him move forward.Then Junie Bell shows him the wrong form.It is not a shipping manifest.It is a chain-of-custody log.And it does not list property.It lists people.As Leon begins to understand the system around him, the warehouse changes shape. Gray vans, side gates, hidden routes, intake codes, transfer holds, shift assignments, public contracts, emergency purchases, and vendor language all point toward a machine that has learned how to move workers through public systems like inventory.The official words sound clean: labor source, associate, structured program, public benefit. But the truth underneath is brutal. Some systems do not release people. They simply change the name of the cage.Custody Chain is a Ledger City novel about reentry exploitation, public procurement, forced labor, warehouse logistics, carceral systems, and the people brave enough to expose a machine that calls control opportunity.The door could lock.The promise only had to sound open long enough to get a man through it.The uploaded manuscript identifies Custody Chain as A Ledger City Novel, and its opening follows Leon Vale at Meridian Civic Logistics, where release papers say community supervision, the van driver's clipboard says labor source, and a chain-of-custody log begins revealing that people are being tracked like property.

He thought the job was freedom. Then he found his name on a custody log.In Custody Chain, Darius Blackman returns to Ledger City with a social suspense novel about reentry, labor exploitation, public contracts, warehouse logistics, forced labor, and the systems that rename captivity as opportunity.Leon Vale needs the warehouse job to be a step forward.Recently released from county custody, carrying debt, family responsibility, and the hope of rebuilding his life, Leon accepts work at Meridian Civic Logistics under the language of community supervision, structured rehabilitation, transitional work, and public-service logistics. The job is supposed to help him move forward.Then Junie Bell shows him the wrong form.It is not a shipping manifest.It is a chain-of-custody log.And it does not list property.It lists people.As Leon begins to understand the system around him, the warehouse changes shape. Gray vans, side gates, hidden routes, intake codes, transfer holds, shift assignments, public contracts, emergency purchases, and vendor language all point toward a machine that has learned how to move workers through public systems like inventory.The official words sound clean: labor source, associate, structured program, public benefit. But the truth underneath is brutal. Some systems do not release people. They simply change the name of the cage.Custody Chain is a Ledger City novel about reentry exploitation, public procurement, forced labor, warehouse logistics, carceral systems, and the people brave enough to expose a machine that calls control opportunity.The door could lock.The promise only had to sound open long enough to get a man through it.The uploaded manuscript identifies Custody Chain as A Ledger City Novel, and its opening follows Leon Vale at Meridian Civic Logistics, where release papers say community supervision, the van driver's clipboard says labor source, and a chain-of-custody log begins revealing that people are being tracked like property.

He thought the job was freedom. Then he found his name on a custody log.In Custody Chain, Darius Blackman returns to Ledger City with a social suspense novel about reentry, labor exploitation, public contracts, warehouse logistics, forced labor, and the systems that rename captivity as opportunity.Leon Vale needs the warehouse job to be a step forward.Recently released from county custody, carrying debt, family responsibility, and the hope of rebuilding his life, Leon accepts work at Meridian Civic Logistics under the language of community supervision, structured rehabilitation, transitional work, and public-service logistics. The job is supposed to help him move forward.Then Junie Bell shows him the wrong form.It is not a shipping manifest.It is a chain-of-custody log.And it does not list property.It lists people.As Leon begins to understand the system around him, the warehouse changes shape. Gray vans, side gates, hidden routes, intake codes, transfer holds, shift assignments, public contracts, emergency purchases, and vendor language all point toward a machine that has learned how to move workers through public systems like inventory.The official words sound clean: labor source, associate, structured program, public benefit. But the truth underneath is brutal. Some systems do not release people. They simply change the name of the cage.Custody Chain is a Ledger City novel about reentry exploitation, public procurement, forced labor, warehouse logistics, carceral systems, and the people brave enough to expose a machine that calls control opportunity.The door could lock.The promise only had to sound open long enough to get a man through it.The uploaded manuscript identifies Custody Chain as A Ledger City Novel, and its opening follows Leon Vale at Meridian Civic Logistics, where release papers say community supervision, the van driver's clipboard says labor source, and a chain-of-custody log begins revealing that people are being tracked like property.