Frederik blinked.
Not because he disliked the idea. Quite the opposite. The sudden sharpening of his attention revealed him right away.
Rafael, naturally, noticed.
"Yes," he said, with the calm satisfaction of a man dangling civilization before a highly dangerous child. "A controlled one. Not the Shadow operational systems, before anyone in this room becomes overexcited. A training-grade simulator. Closed environment. No live access to the estate grid, no actual maintenance shafts, no real security delays for you to exploit while giving me heart failure."
Natalie's smile deepened.
Across the projected board, Arik leaned in with immediate interest. "The ones the Shadows use for response drills?"
Gregoris answered this time. "A lower-level version."
Arik looked mildly disappointed. "That's less fun."
"That," Rafael said, without taking his eyes off Frederik, "is because you are both part of the problem."
Frederik was still listening too intently to care about the insult.
