The city had changed.
Taller buildings. Brighter screens. More people hurrying toward something important.
Aurora watched it all through the tinted window, alone in the back seat. The driver hadn't said a word since the airport. He had been told not to.
Eight years. She had imagined this drive a thousand times. In hotel rooms in Zurich. In server rooms at three in the morning. In the quiet hour after training, when her knuckles ached and the world felt very far away.
In her imagination, she felt powerful.
Now she just felt tired.
Her phone lit up.
"Madam." Sophia's voice came through the earpiece, crisp and steady. "I'm ten minutes behind you. The Eclipse office needed a signature before I could leave."
"It always does."
"It's a very needy company."
"I wonder who runs it."
"A te
