By morning, the inquiry was gone.
No announcement.
No apology.
No paper trail.
Just… absence.
Nyra noticed it the way she noticed everything else not because someone told her, but because the system felt lighter. Fewer background processes running. No ghost pings on her access logs. No subtle delays.
Someone had backed off.
She sat at her desk, eyes on the screen, fingers still. Elias slid into the chair beside her with a coffee she hadn't asked for.
"They pulled it," he said quietly.
Nyra didn't look up. "I know."
Elias studied her face. "You good?"
She shrugged. "As good as someone gets when people remember you're not as small as they thought."
Across the floor, behind glass and steel, Adrian watched.
He hadn't slept.
His office looked untouched, but something about him wasn't. His movements were precise again too precise. The kind of control that came after damage, not before it.
He saw Nyra laugh softly at something Elias said.
It wasn't flirtation.
That made it worse.
Adrian turned away before the feeling sharpened into something dangerous.
He called Legal. Then Compliance. Then shut both conversations down before they could start again.
"No more escalation," he said flatly. "We're done."
When the call ended, he sat there in silence.
This was not retreat.
This was recalibration.
Nyra would not be cornered.
She would not be controlled.
But she would be understood.
Understanding was power too.
Adrian pulled up a fresh document and typed a single line at the top:
Observe. Do not interfere.
For now.
Elsewhere far from glass towers and quiet offices Shark listened as reports came in.
"They stopped," his guy said. "Whoever it was… backed off clean."
Shark nodded once. "Good."
Nyra wasn't naïve enough to think this meant safety.
Neither was he.
Some fights didn't announce themselves again. They waited.
Shark looked out over the city, phone heavy in his hand.
"They noticed resistance," he muttered. "That means curiosity's still alive."
Back at ValeTech, Nyra finally started typing again.
Code flowed. Clean. Aggressive. Brilliant.
On the surface, balance had returned.
But beneath it
Three minds were now fully aware of each other.
And the next move wouldn't be accidental.