Elena closed her eyes. She remembered the failed Q3 audit. The way her handler had looked at her—not with anger, but with disappointment . A cold, clinical disappointment that cut deeper than any bullet. She brought the trumpet to her lips and pushed .

“Worse,” Marcus said, his voice hollow. “It’s development .”

Effective immediately, all field agents must complete TPS-BR-771 (“Emotional Resonance through Brass Instruments”) before their next deployment. Failure to comply will result in immediate leave without pay.

Elena Vasquez read the subject line three times. Then a fourth. She was a 12-year veteran of the Transaction Processing Service—a clandestine organization that didn’t deal in espionage or assassination, but in the subtle, terrifying work of . Her last mission had involved infiltrating a mid-level accounting firm and convincing its CEO that “synergy” was a real, measurable force. She had nightmares about pivot tables.

Elena raised a hand. “Director, I once convinced a man to outsource his own mother’s birthday party. I feel plenty.”

Their final test was a live simulation: a hostile extraction from a luxury hotel ballroom. But instead of weapons, they carried their instruments.

She’d handled worse than a training module.

“A tenor trombone,” he corrected, as if that made it more reasonable. “Report to Sublevel 7. And bring a mouthpiece.” Sublevel 7 had always been a myth among TPS operatives—a rumored place where they sent people who failed their quarterly performance reviews. The elevator opened onto a long, soundproofed corridor that smelled of valve oil and anxiety.