Lyra did not move immediately after the toy was removed.
She let the space it had occupied remain empty on the table, a deliberate absence. The kind that forced the eye to return to it again and again. The third force meant it as provocation. She turned it into inventory.
Tyler watched her from across the room. He had not taken his eyes off her since the bundle had arrived. Since the message shifted from implication to threat.
“They’re escalating vertically now,” he said quietly. “Not outward.”
“Yes,” Lyra replied. “They’ve reached the point where pressure isn’t enough.”
She straightened, smoothing the front of her coat. “That means they want a response.”
“And you’re going to give it to them,” Tyler said.
“Yes,” Lyra replied. “But not emotionally.”
He tilted his head. “Administrati
