The weekend passed in a haze of logistics and low-burning desire.
Saturday morning, Joanna moved most of her personal files into the Thorn Publishing cloud drive. No fanfare. No discussion. She simply appeared at the office at 9:00 a.m. sharp, coffee in hand, laptop already open.
She wore a navy suit today, tailored, severe, professional. Under the jacket, though, the blouse was unbuttoned one notch lower than Friday. A deliberate signal.
Kasia noticed. Smiled privately.
I didn't comment.
We spent the morning in the conference room dissecting the Vektor strategy brief.
Joanna had already drafted three parallel attack vectors on clause 7.12b:
1. A pre-emptive class-action-style complaint filed in Luxembourg (EU jurisdiction shopping) alleging anti-competitive IP overreach.
2. Quiet buyouts of small, vocal indie-author advocacy groups—seed money to amplify the clause as a cautionary tale on forums, social media platforms.
