Graham Vale knew my face.
That was more than I’d expected.
He looked at me when Camila and I entered, glanced toward Talia, then let his eyes settle on Camila a little longer than necessary.
Most men did.
Then he looked back at me.
"You work here."
"Part-time. Behind the bar."
He narrowed his eyes.
"Adam Cale?"
"Evan Cole."
"Right."
He nodded as though the correction wasn’t particularly important, then turned his attention back to Camila.
"Ms. Reyes."
"Camila is fine."
Sure. Her name he got right.
She smiled and took the chair across from him.
Talia stayed near the window with her arms folded. I’d worked enough shifts with her to recognize the posture.
She didn’t like this.
Vale opened our proposal.
"Aurelia PULSE. Behind the Rope."
"Working title," Camila said.
His eyes stayed on the page.
"What exactly are you selling me?"
"People don’t need another video telling them where to buy an expensive drink."
Vale’s mouth twitched.
Camila leaned forward slightly.
"They want access. Creators. Artists. Promoters. Fashion. People they recognize, or people whose lives look more interesting than theirs."
"And Vesper?"
"Has all of them in one room."
That got his attention.
"We’re not making a documentary about Vesper," she continued. "We’re making people wish they could get into it."
Good.
Vale looked back at the proposal.
"And Aurelia pushes this where?"
"PULSE first. If it performs, potentially across NEXT."
That interested him.
Then Talia spoke.
"One wrong guest gets filmed and I spend the rest of the night fixing it."
Vale didn’t dismiss her.
"She’s right."
Camila’s smile held.
"Then we make sure there isn’t a wrong guest."
Talia looked at her.
"You know who not to approach?"
Camila paused just long enough to answer the question for me.
"No," I said. "But Talia does."
Three sets of eyes moved to me.
Something shifted in Talia’s expression.
"Don’t give us access to Vesper," I continued. "Give us access to whatever she clears."
Vale lowered the tablet.
"One phone. Public areas. We show her who we’re interested in before we film. If she says no, we move on."
Talia’s eyes moved to Camila.
"And when your friend wants one more shot?"
"We stop."
Camila looked at me.
I ignored it.
"Talia gets final say on the floor."
Vale turned toward her.
"Could you work with that?"
"I’d rather not."
His expression didn’t change.
"That wasn’t the question."
Her jaw shifted.
"One phone. No back corridor. No hotel floors. Nobody gets filmed before I clear them."
Camila nodded.
"Deal."
Vale picked up the tablet.
"Friday. Limited pilot."
He looked at Talia.
"Anything live stays inside whatever Brooks clears. Anything edited with Vesper’s name on it comes to me first."
"Works for me."
Black and gold opened across my vision.
MASTER QUEST COMPLETE
BEYOND THE OFFICE
REWARD
+60 Master XP+8 Authority
MASTER XP: 3 → 63 / 100
AUTHORITY: 21 → 29
Sixty-three looked considerably better than three.
Another window replaced it.
NEW MASTER QUEST
STEP BEHIND THE CURTAIN
Gain meaningful involvement in something at Vesper normally kept beyond your position.
REWARD
+40 Master XP+6 Authority
I read it twice.
What the hell am I supposed to do with that?
No target. No specific action. Not even a hint about what counted as behind the curtain.
Sometimes I wondered whether Camila felt like this when one of her Quests appeared.
At least hers usually told her what to do.
Mine apparently preferred riddles.
I was a part-time bartender. What exactly did Quest Master expect me to become involved in?
Whatever the answer was, forty Master XP meant I wasn’t ignoring it.
I dismissed the window.
A knock came from the door.
It opened before Vale answered.
A man in a dark jacket leaned inside. Mid-forties. No Vesper uniform. No hotel badge.
"You busy?"
Vale checked the time.
"You’re early."
"Traffic surprised me."
The man’s eyes passed over Camila, then me.
"Didn’t know you had company."
Vale barely looked up.
"Five minutes."
The man nodded and closed the door.
I glanced toward Talia.
Her expression had barely changed.
Her arms were no longer folded.
Interesting.
Talia walked us back toward the floor ten minutes later.
Vesper wasn’t open yet. Staff stocked bottles while someone tested the lighting overhead.
Near the corridor connecting the club to the hotel, two women passed us. A staff member beside the elevator checked his phone.
"Fourteen-twelve. They’re expecting you."
One of the women nodded before the elevator doors closed.
Camila watched them go.
"What about a transition from the hotel tomorrow? Lobby, arrivals—"
"No."
Talia didn’t even slow down.
Camila tried again.
"Just the lobby."
"The lobby is different. Keep your phone downstairs."
Something in Talia’s voice ended the discussion.
At the edge of the floor, she turned toward us.
"Eight-thirty tomorrow."
Her attention went directly to Camila.
"Phone stays down until I clear it."
"Understood."
Then she looked at me.
"You actually thought this through."
I raised an eyebrow.
"I’m hurt you sound surprised."
For half a second, the corner of her mouth moved.
Then it was gone.
"Tomorrow, Cole."
She walked away.
Camila watched her go.
"She always like that?"
"Pretty much."
Her eyes stayed on Talia.
"I like her."
"You don’t work for her."
Camila laughed.
I didn’t.
My phone showed what I’d already known.
CAMILA REYES
Sends Available: 0 / 2Next Reset: 04:00
Thursday was done.
Friday wasn’t.
I glanced back toward the hotel corridor.
The visitor who’d walked into Vale’s office without waiting. People being directed upstairs. Parts of the building Talia wanted nowhere near a camera.
None of it meant much on its own.
Maybe that was the point.
STEP BEHIND THE CURTAIN
At four, Camila would have two fresh Sends.
I had twenty-nine Authority and an entire Friday night inside Vesper ahead of me.
For most of the week, I’d waited for Quest Master to tell me what mattered.
Tomorrow, I was paying attention before it did.