When Everest mentioned the Darwin Economic Zone, Crown and Slate being vulnerable there made sense. They had never adapted properly after the Red Decades. Most corporations had learned how to present themselves afterward — cleaner branding, softer language, pretending they existed for the public good. Crown and Slate never really bothered until the laws forced their hand. They complied with regulations because they had to, not because they believed in them. Their products were incredible. Their public image wasn’t. For years they'd been snubbed by the other megacorps as well as the general population. And if Andrea worked for them instead of here, she'd resent them all for it. But silver linings came with that too, because that kind of resentment created openings. Andrea nodded once.

“I’ll make sure the two operations stay separate.” She said. “If anyone starts looking closely at my department, I’d rather they find out that we're bidding to get into Darwin, rather than this.” She gestured briefly down at Rooster again.

The situation still felt strange sitting in her hands. Not unbelievable, though. She’d spent far too long in corporate operations to think that she didn't deserve this promotion, or this unique challenge about the brains from Everest. Rather, it was strange in the sense that it changed the shape of things retroactively. Suddenly certain corporate decisions, acquisitions and disappearances from the last few decades looked different. Or maybe she was already starting to see patterns where she wanted them to exist. That was dangerous too. Best not to make assumptions. That suited Andrea fine. Most people became visible when they searched aggressively. They pulled records. Leaned on subsidiaries. Started asking questions in the wrong places. The smarter approach was usually to find the edges of a thing first and work inward slowly.

"Will there be anything else, ma'am?" Andrea asked, partly hoping to actually familiarise herself with the tools of her newest trade, but also to get her expected Chief of Operations workload out of the way so she could spend some time with Rooster. She hoped that Magnolia understood that she wasn't trying to rush her out of the room.