tirely different universe. The walls were bare, the glass desk pristine, and the floor-to-ceiling

he login screen. My new assistant-Natalie, who looked like she could b

VP, Blackwood

t letter of my password. The cursor b

I hit

ystem cam

Product maps. Patent po

archive, searching for t

erCl

ny. My old i

d have b

ferent name: SkyVault AI. Registered

ath st

ven the aesthetic was familiar-the same soft blue tones I'd chosen in the prototype phase. Only n

il

uried in the notes, in a fragment of an old comment line I'd written

tive sync bug in T

e I

oo

ike a fist

he door. Natalie

ten. Mr. Blackwood

stiffly.

le

y from the thing Daniel had stolen. Not just the code. The credit.

just broke

erase

ng enough to seat twenty, with Damien at the head. He wore a steel-gra

lder men, a few sharp-eyed women

ising, "this is Lena Carter, our n

were m

kyVault division," D

men on the left-Vickers, I remem

lt was under Dani

il we discovered several... redundancies.

cing my spine strai

hem s

hem d

e what Dani

ou'll understand if we're curious, Ms. Carter

sity is justified. But not

bli

o years ago under a different name. I understand its architecture, its applicat

om wen

yes didn't

ext quarterly review," I continued. "And I'll be proposing a ful

their a

id sharply. "Do you ha

," I interrupted, voice like ice. "And that it will wan

ck in his chair,

s my full supp

but no one challenged

th carefully polite nods and a few quie

rawn

a l

feel ali

y the skyline. He was nursing a tumbler of bourbon and st

cript," he said

brilliant last t

now, one b

word 'audit' like

igured you lik

flickering with so

will ret

oo

ady for

he day he signed my name

pa

"You surpris

an the

mien sai

ght me o

t I'd flinc

t you'd n

ole. And I want to make sure the next time someone looks at me, they don't

stepped

you want fr

n was sharp

n't f

everage. A

nod

at don't

ide the game. I'll be your partner in this-your weapo

rst time since I'd met him, he gave m

erst

I caught sight of my reflectio

ething differ

ra

ru

ate

it, someth

gea

against

ing that said I