A witness doesn't have to disappear to be erased. When a key witness vanishes without a crime ever being committed, the Afterline Bureau is called in to investigate what no one else can see-delays that look like procedure, silences that feel like safety, and systems that decide who is worth protecting. As cases begin to stack up-couriers dead by "accident," journalists ruled suicides, witnesses quietly placed into medical holds-the Bureau uncovers a chilling truth: the disappearances are not failures. They are features. At the center is a doctrine designed to let people vanish legally, compassionately, and without consequence. No kidnappings. No cover-ups. Just time, paperwork, and patience. As Tahlia Greene and her team push back against a system built to absorb loss, they discover that the greatest danger isn't corruption-it's compliance. And when the Bureau refuses to trade silence for stability, they become the next variables in an experiment that counts lives as acceptable margins. With tensions escalating, a witness rescued from erasure, and powerful forces moving to restore control, the Afterline Bureau must decide how far they're willing to go to make the invisible visible-knowing that once the system notices you, it never stops watching. MATERIAL WITNESS is a razor-sharp thriller about power without fingerprints, justice without noise, and the cost of choosing procedure over people.