The next move didn't come loudly. It came precisely. At 9:12 a.m, the resignation hit. A senior compliance officer. Unexpected. Unexplained.
By 10:03, another followed. Then a third. Different departments. Different roles. Same pattern. No warning. No transition plan. Just absence.
By noon, the company felt it. Not in headlines. But internally. In disrupted workflows. In delayed approvals. In subtle fractures spreading through the structure.
Aria stood in the operations hub, watching the updates cascade across the system. Her expression didn't change. Her mind was racing, however. Too quick for anybody else to catch up.
“This isn't a coincidence,” one executive said tightly. “No,” Aria signed. Her hands were steady. “It's extraction.”
The word landed heavy. That's exactly what
