Harrison Wells had departed exactly seventeen minutes ago, but his presence still lingered in the penthouse like the aftertaste of bad coffee.
Sophie had already projected her analysis onto the living room wall—a new PowerPoint titled The Alexander Negotiation: Preliminary Assessment of the Counter-Offer. It had twelve slides so far, but Sophie had informed everyone that she expected it to reach at least thirty by the end of the evening. "The legal implications alone require seven slides," she had explained, clicking through the preliminary sections. "And I haven't even started on the emotional dimensions. The emotional dimensions are where it gets complicated."
