**DEREK POV**
I meet with them without informing Rylan.
That choice is deliberate.
Not impulsive. Not reactive. I don’t do anything on instinct anymore. I learned that lesson too late, but I learned it well.
The meeting is framed as operational necessity. That part is true. The lie, if there is one, lives in omission.
Two senior figures. Both longstanding. Both respected in ways that don’t rely on charisma or volume. They arrive separately, at different times, so it doesn’t look coordinated. That matters more than it should.
We sit in the smaller conference room. No windows. No observers. No recorders. The hum of the lights is louder than it needs to be.
I open with logistics.
“Recent instability has created vulnerabilities,” I say. “I’m addressing them before they calcify.”
One o
