The facility did not look like a place where something could slip through unnoticed.
Which meant it already had.
Galathea Brooks felt it before they even crossed the threshold. Not a shift in the air, not a visible disruption-- something subtler, something that pressed against her awareness without fully forming.
Like a thought she almost remembered.
"You're already ahead of it," Cael Alexander said to her as they passed through the entry point.
She didn't look at him. "I don't think we are," she replied.
That earned a glance.
Not of surprise but of interest.
The staff moved with quiet efficiency, their presence contained, their attention deliberately narrow. No one lingered. No one asked questions. Systems responded as expected-- doors unlocking, lights adjusting, pathways clearing.
Everything functioned, which was exactly the problem.
