Panel Analyst Talis Vehr.
I angle my head just enough to catch her reflection in the memorial glass. Pi’Rell. Silver eyes. Neutral coat. One sealed folio tucked under her arm instead of the memorial packet everybody else is carrying.
I say, just as quietly, “That is a deeply suspicious opening.”
“Correct,” she murmurs.
“Should I be alarmed?”
“Yes.”
Well. Great.
I lower my hand and turn then, not sharply, just enough to make it look like an ordinary post-ceremony exchange between two people who have survived the same institutional weather.
Talis’s expression is almost unnaturally calm. Around us, the memorial site keeps moving—mourners, marshals, sound techs quietly breaking down one side of the broadcast rig, the far-off drone of public commentary leaking from handheld feeds. But the air around her feels different. Tighter.
“What happened,” I ask.
She glances once toward the podium, once toward the thinning family section, then says, “A packet was moved under secondary unsealing authority this morning. It should not have crossed my desk. It did.”
I study her face. “And yet it did.”
“Yes.”
The folio shifts slightly under her arm.
My pulse starts its ugly little climb.
“Talis.”
She lifts one shoulder in the tiniest possible shrug. “You are already politically contaminated. I assume this information cannot worsen your reputation meaningfully.”
“That is the least comforting thing anyone has said to me all week.”
“I am not a comforting person.”
“Noted. What is it?”
She doesn’t hand it to me immediately. Instead she says, “It concerns wartime emergency authorization protocols. Senate committee briefings. Pre-ratification language.”
The morning seems to change texture around me.
Not louder. Sharper.
I look past her, instinctively, toward Rhyx. He is still with the marshal, broad shoulders turned half away, attention on route maps and crowd movement. Safe for the moment. Unaware.
Good.
Bad.
I don’t know.
I lower my voice. “You’re telling me there’s more.”
Talis meets my eyes. “There is always more.”
That one lands ugly because it’s true.
