CHAPTER 169 — WHEN DISTANCE STOPPED BEING SAFE
Distance had once been protection.
Not the physical kind. Not space measured in streets or regions or sectors. A quieter distance. The kind created by structure. By hierarchy. By the simple understanding that decisions made far away did not belong to you.
It had allowed people to function without carrying everything.
It had allowed them to breathe.
Now that distance was gone.
And for the first time, people were beginning to understand what that meant.
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The morning did not feel unstable.
It felt exposed.
Elena noticed it in the way the updates arrived. Not slower. Not faster. But closer. Every decision carried context that reached beyond its origin. Every action touched something else almost immediately.
Nothing stayed isolated anymore.
Marcus stood at the console, scrolling through overlapping reports. His expression tightened with each layer he pulled up.
"They are intersecting," he said.
