Monday morning hit different.
Nyra walked into ValeTech with Eastside still in her bones. Hoodie swapped for a fitted jacket. Locs pulled back clean. Sneakers quiet against the polished floors.
She was calm.
Dangerously so.
Adrian noticed the second she stepped off the elevator.
Something about her had shifted. Not louder. Not colder.
Rooted.
She didn't hesitate at the doors. Didn't scan the room. She moved like someone who knew exactly where she belonged and didn't need permission to be there.
That unsettled him.
"Morning," he said when she passed his office.
"Morning," she replied.
Nothing more.
No edge. No familiarity.
Professional distance, perfected.
The meeting was efficient. Numbers aligned. Projections stable. Nyra presented without flourish, voice even, logic airtight.
When someone challenged an assumption, she dismantled it cleanly. No emotion. No ego.
Adrian nodded once. Approval without praise.
She didn't look for more.
Halfway through, an alert popped up on Nyra's tablet.
A small thing.
Unfamiliar IP.
Background traffic.
Not dangerous yet.
But wrong.
Her jaw tightened for half a second.
Adrian caught it.
After the meeting, he stopped her outside the conference room.
"Walk with me."
She did.
"What changed?" he asked quietly.
She didn't pretend not to understand. "I went home."
"That's not an answer."
"It's the only one you're getting."
They stopped near the glass wall overlooking the city.
"You're different," Adrian said.
Nyra met his eyes. Calm. Clear. "No. I'm focused."
Another pause.
He studied her like a variable he couldn't isolate.
"Whatever's happening outside this company," he said, "doesn't come in here."
She smiled faintly. Not amused.
"That's cute," she said. "But systems don't care about borders."
Then she turned and walked away.
From her desk, Nyra opened her laptop and reran the alert quietly.
The traffic hadn't stopped.
It was patient.
Waiting.
Adrian watched her from his office, uneasy in a way he hadn't felt in years.
Back to work didn't mean back to normal.
It meant the collision was already underway.