We're three blocks from the Exchange when the black car pulls up alongside us, too smooth, too deliberate to be coincidence.
"Keep walking," Talia says under her breath. "Don't run. Running confirms we're worried."
The car matches our pace exactly, windows tinted, engine idling low. Then the rear door opens, and two men step out, Vantage-issue suits, the same controlled aggression I remember from the collectors who first cornered me in a hospital parking garage.
"Mr. Arden," one of them says. "Director Calloway would like a word before you proceed any further."
"Tell her I'm busy."
"She insisted this wasn't optional."
The second man moves toward Mira, and something in me snaps entirely loose. I step between them fast, putting my whole body in the gap.
"Don't touch her."
"We're not
