At 4:46, Rachel called the room to attention.
"Current rotation ends at five. Updated standings go live Monday morning, followed by the new rotation briefing at nine. New assignments will be announced then. Enjoy the weekend."
That got everyone’s attention.
Everyone also pretended the last part was possible.
My phone vibrated.
PLAYER QUEST COMPLETE
CAMILA REYES
BANK THE HOURS
REWARD DISTRIBUTED
+35 Player XPSLEEP COMPRESSION — SINGLE USE
Next sleep cycle requires 4 hours for full recovery.
HIDDEN REWARD
SECRETARY Role XP +2
Her profile updated.
PLAYER — Lv.1
XP: 75 / 100
SECRETARY — Lv.1
Role XP: 4 / 100Role Alignment: 0%
Two Quests had taken her to seventy-five XP and four Role XP.
Alignment was still zero.
I glanced across the room.
Camila was reading something on her phone, and the smile came almost immediately.
She’d spent half the morning trying to decide whether the System was a hack, an experiment or something worse.
Now she looked pleased to hear from it.
That was progress.
She packed her laptop a few minutes later and stopped beside my desk on the way out.
"Still working?"
"Some of us didn’t finish everything before five."
Her eyebrows rose.
"Sounds like a time-management problem."
There she was.
Her smile widened.
"Have a good weekend, Secretary."
Then she left.
Camila was still Camila.
For now.
By eleven, Vesper was packed.
Aurelia paid enough to keep me alive. Vesper made the rest of the month less painful, so I traded corporate blue for black and spent Friday night making overpriced drinks for people who barely noticed the person handing them over.
The service corridor opened beside the back bar.
Usually, whatever happened beyond that door stayed beyond it.
Around midnight, one of the security guys came through and leaned toward Talia. I couldn’t hear what he’d said over the music, but I caught her response.
"Who saw?"
He gave a small shrug.
"Find out."
Then they disappeared through the service door.
Ten minutes later, it opened again.
A man in an expensive jacket came out first, Talia behind him. He was drunk enough to be loud and sober enough to be angry, pointing repeatedly toward the main floor.
Talia pointed the other way.
Toward the service elevator.
Then she held out her hand.
"Phone."
Whatever he’d been saying stopped.
He shook his head.
"Calder wants it."
That changed his expression.
Not enough.
He stepped toward her and started another sentence, then grabbed her wrist when she reached for the phone.
Bad choice.
Talia hit him once.
No windup. No warning.
His head snapped sideways, his shoulder struck the wall, and then he was on the floor.
For half a second, I forgot about the drink in my hand.
The man tried to push himself up.
Talia planted the heel of her shoe against his shoulder and put him back down.
"Stay."
He did.
Blood ran from his nose while the security guard took the phone from his hand.
"Phone stays. Get him out."
The man started protesting again.
Talia was already walking away.
Security hauled him toward the service elevator. The doors closed, the music swallowed the scene, and Vesper went on as if nothing had happened.
I went back to work.
Or tried to.
Two minutes later, Talia came behind the bar and walked straight toward me.
She turned on the faucet and washed the blood from her knuckles while I polished a glass that had been clean for at least thirty seconds.
Only when the water ran clear did she look at me.
"How much did you see?"
"Nothing."
Her eyes stayed on mine for a moment.
Then she gave the smallest nod.
"Smart."
She took a bottle of water and walked back onto the floor.
I watched her go.
I’d known Talia handled VIP operations.
I was beginning to understand how flexible the word operations could be.
Then a thought occurred to me.
The System had told me more about Camila in a few seconds than I’d learned from weeks of working beside her.
I looked across the room at Talia.
Assess.
ASSESSMENT COMPLETE
TALIA BROOKS
Age: 26
STR — 14AGI — 12VIT — 13STA — 14
INT — 9WIL — 14PER — 12CHA — 9PRE — 15
Strength fourteen tracked.
So did Presence fifteen.
Talia wasn’t charming because she didn’t need to be. People moved when she decided they were moving.
Another panel opened beneath her attributes.
AVAILABLE HIDDEN ROLES
FIXERENFORCERGUARDPET
I read the last one twice.
Pet.
For Talia Brooks.
The woman who’d just dropped a grown man with one punch, pinned him to the floor with one foot and then made sure I understood exactly what I hadn’t seen.
I almost laughed.
The other three made considerably more sense.
A new prompt appeared.
STORE AS ASSESSED TARGET?
[YES]
There wasn’t much reason not to.
I pressed it.
ASSESSED TARGET ADDED
TALIA BROOKS
PLAYER CAPACITY
Registered Players: 1 / 1
Registration currently unavailable.
I stared at the last line.
I hadn’t been planning to register her. I barely understood what having Camila as a Player would eventually mean.
Still, the fact that I couldn’t register Talia bothered me.
That was new.
That morning, one Player had sounded impossible.
Tonight, one Player sounded small.
Across Vesper, Talia said something to a security guard twice her size.
He moved immediately.
I locked my phone and went back to work.