"The kind that make you very certain your judgment is correct," Marcus said. "And the kind that make it hard to account for perspectives that don't match your own experience. She's not malicious. She's not dangerous in the conventional sense. But she's been the most capable and knowledgeable person in any room she's entered for three thousand years. That shapes a person."Jake sat with that for a second. "And now she's coming to a room with me in it.""Which is also why I didn't tell you until now," Marcus said. "I needed you to be someone she couldn't simply override. Someone with enough footing that the conversation would actually be a conversation.""You waited until I was chairman," Jake said."I waited until you were ready," Marcus said. "The chairmanship was the signal. That's what she told me to watch for."Jake looked at Sora. She was already there. Already at the conclusion. Waiting.He got there too."She desig

"No," Rael said."Then what.""To make sure you don't destroy everything when the next thing comes," she said."What's the next thing," Jake said.Rael looked at Marcus on the screen. Then back at Jake."The seals I built three thousand years ago contained seven Council members," she said. "You sealed six."Harrison went very still by the window.Sora's hands stopped on her keyboard.Marcus said nothing. He already knew."Six," Jake said."Six," Rael said. "The seventh was already gone when we sealed the others. I've been looking for it for three thousand years."Jake leaned forward. "Gone where.""It left," Rael said. "Before the sealing. It didn't flee because it agreed with us. It left because it had a different plan. Something it's been working on since before we contained the others." She put her hands flat on the table. "It's been free this entire time. Watching. Building. And now that the six are contained and the four Hearts are in one place, it knows exactly where to find wha

Lily walked into Jake's office at eight-fifty AM with her notebook and a coffee she'd clearly made herself and closed the door behind her without being asked to.Jake looked at the closed door. Then at her. "How bad is it?""Depends on your definition," Lily said, sitting down. She opened her laptop and turned it toward him. "Financial Times ran it above the fold. Succession planning angle. Very clean.""Good," Jake said."Forbes wants a deeper profile. How long you've actually been running things. The full story.""What did you tell them?""That we'd consider it after the investigation closes," Lily said. "Which bought us time and didn't commit to anything." She reached over and clicked to a different tab. "The rest of the coverage is going somewhere else."Jake leaned forward.The alumni channels. Former Titan interns posting warm recollections about working alongside Jake Morrison during his assistant days. The tone was the specific kind of revisionist warmth that made Jake's eye t