The review wasn't announced.
It never was.
Behind Closed Doors
A separate panel convened—
Not the council.
Not the hospitals.
Observers.
Analysts.
Contract specialists.
They didn't debate ethics.
They evaluated trajectory.
Key Question
"Is this scalable?"
"Is it controllable?"
"And if not—can it be outpaced?"
No one mentioned Lin Chen's name.
They didn't have to.
Parallel Pressure
Inside the system dashboard, Lin Chen noticed a shift.
Requests weren't increasing.
They were standardizing.
Same formats.
Same metrics.
Same expectations.
Institutions were preparing to rely on him.
Dr. Hart's Realization
"They're deciding whether to build around you," she said,
"or build something to replace you."
Lin Chen didn't look up.
"That decision gets harder every day."
System Status
[Dependency Index: Rising.]
[Replacement Feasibility: Declining.]
[Political Risk: Deferred.]
Deferred didn't mean gone.
It meant waiting.
A Controlled Leak
That evening, a report surfaced.
Not condemning.
Not praising.
Just numbers.
Outcomes.
Comparisons.
Time-to-response charts.
Neutral data was the loudest argument.
Lin Chen's Position
He didn't counter narratives.
He didn't grant interviews.
He kept the system stable.
Predictable.
Reliable.
Unignorable.
Closing Thought
Power didn't come from disruption anymore.
It came from being the thing
everyone quietly adjusted their plans around.
End of Chapter 84