The car went too slow.
That was the only thought Elena could hold onto with any clarity — the streetlights blurring past the window, Adrian's driver taking corners with a precision that should have felt fast and instead felt like wading through something thick, unmoving, wrong. Every red light lasted an hour. Every hour lasted a lifetime she didn't have time to spend.
"Try her again," Adrian said.
Elena's thumb was already moving. Straight to voicemail. She hung up before the beep, dialed again, got the same result.
"Nothing," she said.
"Security's four minutes out." Adrian had his own phone pressed to his ear, low urgent instructions to someone on the other end — *do not engage, just observe, tell me the moment you have eyes on the building.* His voice stayed level in a way Elena's c
