Renn's reassignment turns out to be the first domino, not the last.
By Thursday, Danika stops sitting with us at lunch, mumbling something about workload before disappearing toward a different corner of the floor. By Friday, the clerk from the archive room suddenly needs "supervisor approval" before letting me check out anything, even routine case files that have nothing to do with Voss. Small things. Deniable things. The kind of pressure that never quite becomes a real accusation, just a slow tightening around everyone standing near me.
"They're not coming after you directly," Talia says, watching Danika's empty seat from across the floor. "They're making everyone around you calculate the cost of staying close."
"Is it working?"
"On some people. Not on Renn, apparently, since he's sti
