Derek makes a decision that costs him.
I don’t see it happen all at once. There’s no announcement that lands like a dropped weight, no sharp intake of breath from the room. No dramatic pause designed to draw eyes or carve the moment into memory. It unfolds in pieces, the way real sacrifice usually does. Quiet. Administrative. Wrapped in language that sounds procedural if you’re not listening closely enough. The kind of change that slips past people who only notice power when it announces itself.
He steps back from direct command on this operation.
Not rhetorically. Not symbolically. Literally.
It shows first in where he stands. He doesn’t take the head of the table anymore. He chooses a side seat without comment, tablet resting idle in front of him instead of angled like a weapon. He d
