The door clicked shut, leaving Derek and me alone in the sterile white room.

“She actually did it,” Derek said, his voice barely a whisper.

“She’s trying to destroy us before we even start.”

“She’s trying to force us back,” I said.

I walked over to the stainless steel workbench and picked up my notebook.

“She knows the federal grant is the only thing keeping our manufacturing facility open.”

“If that money freezes, we can’t pay the suppliers next month.”

Derek leaned against the workbench, his head bowed.

The afternoon sun filtered through the high, narrow windows of the Stanford lab, casting long shadows across the concrete floor.

“She doesn’t care about the technology,” he said.

“She just wants to show us that we can’t survive without her.”

“We can,” I said, though my chest felt tight.

“But we have to face her now.”

My phone buzzed again in my hand.

It was a text message from my father’s number, but the phrasing was entirely my mother’s.

*We are in the executive lounge at the Faculty Club. Come alone.*

“She wants me,” I said, showing the screen to Derek.