The conference room filled slowly, each arrival adding another layer of unease to the atmosphere that was already thick enough to taste. Word had spread through UCL's headquarters with the particular speed of fear in an organization where information was usually currency—where knowing something before others defined status, where leaks were as routine as coffee breaks, where the absence of information was itself a message that carried more weight than any announcement.
That absence defined this gathering.
No one knew why they had been summoned. Not the department heads who arrived first, their expressions carefully neutral, their eyes scanning the room for clues they could not find. Not the senior staff who followed, their professional composure cracking at the edges with visible nervousness. Not the key personnel who drifted in last, their body language suggesting they had considered absence and found it more dangerous than attendance.
