The tour ended back on the main floor, in the heart of the command center she had built for us.
The city lights twinkled beyond the glass, a silent, indifferent audience to the raw human drama playing out in the room. Kayla's explanation of the server architecture had tapered off, the professional armor finally melting away completely in the face of my quiet acceptance.
She stood there, bathed in the cool glow of the sleeping monitors, looking lost and beautiful in the vast, empty space she'd poured her soul into.
"Peter?" Her voice was a fragile thread, almost lost in the low hum of the servers.
I turned from the window. "Yeah?"
She took a hesitant step forward, and then another, as if each inch cost her a piece of her pride.
The confident Kayla who had driven us here, who had faced down Lea without flinching, was gone. In her place was a girl stripped of every defense, every last bit of artifice, leaving something exquisitely, terrifyingly vulnerable.
