جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 90

~Katia~The WEG-IG tech showcase was Sam's idea, which meant it was well-organized, well-catered, and had a guest list that made sense. Families were invited, a move on the joint communications team's part to humanize both companies in the coverage, to show the people behind the systems rather than just the systems. It was good strategy. I had approved it three weeks ago and not thought about it again until this morning when Sam reminded me it was today and asked if I was bringing Aiden.Aiden had been asking about the WEG-IG project for months in the way he asked about things that interested him consistently, specifically, returning to the same questions from different angles until he had assembled a complete enough picture to satisfy himself. He knew about the Invisible Shield architecture because he had read the press release and then asked me to explain the parts the press release simplified. He knew about the Dubai expansion because he had found the board summary in my bag and re

~Katia~I made pasta because it was Tuesday, and on Tuesdays I made pasta, and Aiden expected it. The routine was one of the things I had built into our life—not rigidity, but anchor points, small reliable things that said this is stable, this is ours, and nothing has changed.I stood at the stove and stirred and listened to Aiden in the bathroom running the tap for longer than necessary, which meant he was looking at something in the mirror or thinking about something while the water ran, both of which were habits he had developed independently and which I had learned not to interrupt.He came to the table in his pajamas with his hair damp and his face clean and that particular expression he wore when he had been thinking about something specific and had decided dinner was the right time to raise it.I put the pasta down. I sat across from him. I poured his water and my wine, and we both started eating, and I waited because with Aiden you always waited. He would get there in his own

~Katia~My father called ahead, which was how I knew it was serious.David Kensington did not call ahead. He showed up at family events my mother had organised, at dinners that were really ambushes, and at the charity gala with his glass of something he nursed all evening and his habit of standing slightly outside whatever circle he was in. He arrived as part of a unit and departed the same way. He did not call ahead and ask, in a voice that was careful in a way his voice was not usually careful, whether he could come to my office on Thursday morning."Just me," he said on the phone. "Not your mother.""Okay," I said."Is that alright?""Yes, Dad. It's alright."He arrived at ten past ten. Sam showed him in with the quiet professionalism she applied to everything, and he came through the door in his good coat, the one he wore for occasions, and looked around my office the way people looked at things they had heard about and were now seeing for the first time. The view, the space, and

~Katia~I found out on a Thursday.Sam put her tablet on my desk at eight in the morning with the expression she reserved for things that were going to require a decision before the day was out. I was mid-coffee, mid-email, mid-the-particular-focused state I built in the first hour of every working day, and I looked at the screen with the mild attention of someone expecting a logistics update.Then I looked at it with a different kind of attention entirely.I am Catwoman. Always was.I read the caption. I watched the clip. I looked at the woman in the borrowed suit beside the wrong car making the wrong face at the wrong camera.I put my coffee down."How many?" I said."Fifteen," Sam said. "As of this morning. More coming, by the looks of the forums."I looked at the screen for another moment. At this woman, this perfectly ordinary woman who had decided that Catwoman was a costume you could put on with enough confidence and the right filter, I felt something move through me that was n

~Julian~Zane called at six fifteen.I was in the middle of reviewing the Dubai security deployment logistics, the camera positioning, the drone flight paths, the facial recognition coverage radii, and I let it ring once before answering because I had a policy about interruptions during security reviews and Zane knew about the policy and called anyway, which meant it was something he had decided overrode the policy."Have you seen it?" he said."Seen what.""Pull up the racing forums. Any of them. It doesn't matter which one."I pulled up the forums.I read for four minutes without speaking.Then I put the security review aside and read for four more.Zane waited. He was good at waiting when he knew I was reading something, he had learned over years that interrupting me mid-document produced worse outcomes than letting me finish, and he applied this knowledge consistently, which was one of the things that made him useful."She has lawyers," I said."She has a law firm," Zane said. "Re