It happened on the third day of the visit.
Theo Marsh had been, in fairness, entirely professional since the breakfast conversation. Whatever calibration had been running behind his charm seemed to have recalibrated — he was courteous, competent, genuinely useful on the framework's data-sharing architecture, and had stopped looking at Sera in the way that had bothered Darius.
Mostly.
The request came at the end of the working session, when Cole had stepped out to take a call and Darius had gone to check on Rowan, and it was, on its surface, entirely reasonable.
"I'd like to request something," Theo said. "For the framework's pilot phase."
"Go ahead," Sera said.
"The council wants a demonstration," he said. "Of the Read's capability, in a controlled setting, with council oversight. No
