December 10, 2024 — 8:15 AM
Sentinel HQ, BGC — Conference Room C
The hum of fluorescent lights. The scent of brewed coffee. A digital wall screen cycling through infrastructure forecasts.
Angel Cruz stood at the head of the table, stylus in hand, tapping lightly against her tablet as she waited for the last team member to take a seat. Her usual brisk tone was softened by something lighter today—less urgency, more… warmth.
"We'll keep this brief," she said, flipping to the slide of the new transit signal junction schematics. "Phase 3B integration is ahead of schedule. Credit to Engineering for finally syncing the cross-line latency under seven milliseconds."
The room nodded, engineers smiling. One even gave a discreet fist pump.
Angel paused, lips twitching into the faintest smile. "Let's try not to break it this time."
Laughter rippled across the table.
