Pressure doesn't always arrive with threats.
Sometimes it arrives with courtesy.
The morning after legitimacy settled, the city didn't wake up to resistance—it woke up to attention. Not the crude kind. Not the watching-for-collapse kind. This was cleaner. Better dressed. Quietly confident.
The kind that doesn't ask whether something should exist.
Only how it will fit.
Arjun noticed it first, squinting at a pair of unfamiliar vehicles parked just far enough away to avoid blocking traffic."Those weren't here yesterday."
"No," I said."And they're not here by accident."
✦
Pressure without apology never rushes.
It schedules.
People arrived with badges clipped neatly, logos subdued enough to feel optional. They stood at the edges of the clinic street, taking in the flow—not judging, not interrupting.
Mapping.
The girl watched one of them smile at a volunteer."That smile means business," she said.
"Yes," Aaryan replied."And that business thinks it's reasonable."
✦
