Mirabe waited patiently as the two of them went through the data, holding off on moving to the next phase of calctions. She rested her hand on her forehead, leaning back in her chair with her eyes gently closed.


    Kason and Linden, while not experts in the area Mirabe was handling, quickly grasped the core calction methods. Their initial surprise soon turned into excitement.


    "Linden, I think I''ve figured it out," Kason eximed, zooming in on a graph on the screen and clicking on a branch. "We could actually use this X-line differentiation our junior suggested and then integrate it. It should work."


    Linden had only gotten halfway through the data, but hearing Kason, he pushed his sses up, tapped the floor with his foot, and rolled his chair over to Kason''sputer.


    "Check this out. If we calcte it like this, the intersecting and oveying method totally sidesteps the cellr automation issue..." Kason pointed at the screen, his voice brimming with excitement as he shared his breakthrough with Linden.


    That ''aha'' moment hit them like a bolt of lightning.


    Before long, they had hashed out a solid n without even thinking to tell Mirabe whether her method had been helpful.


    Once they''d worked through all the possible solutions, they finally exhaled deeply, leaning back in their chairs with unmistakable joy on their faces. It was like they never expected the solution toe together so easily.


    The breakthrough came right after they looked over the data from their junior... Linden suddenly nced over at Mirabe. He couldn''t shake the feeling that she was subtly guiding them.


    He was about to say something but noticed Mirabe seemed a bit drained, so he held his tongue.


    Just then, Linden''s phone buzzed in his pocket. He pulled it out, checked the screen, and stood up, heading to the window to take the call.


    After a quick, quiet conversation, he hung up.


    Thinking for a moment, Linden turned back, saved his work, and started shutting down hisputer. "I gotta head out. Meg from the tech department needs a hand with some dataparison, and she''s waiting on me."


    Kason, still busy, nced up with a smirk, "Oh, looks like someone''s got a date?"


    In the science and tech fields, where guys often outnumber gals, a request for help from a female colleague is eagerly epted.


    Linden chuckled, shaking his head, "Nah, it''s just work stuff."


    Kason sighed, "See, that''s why some folks stay single for so long."


    Linden just rolled his eyes, not in the mood to argue, and told Mirabe to take it easy before heading out.


    Mirabe nodded, her ck coat making her face look even paler than usual, her lipscking their usual rosy hue.


    Having wrapped up the first phase of her work, she had nothing left to do. She let Jessie and Kason know she was heading out and then shut down herputer.


    Soon enough, Mirabe left theb.


    ***


    Meanwhile, in another part of town...


    Zach had just wrapped up a court session. Feeling a headacheing on, he rubbed his temples and headed to the restroom. After sshing some water on his face and wiping his sses clean, he put them back on and walked out.


    The hallway from the restroom to the main lobby was empty, barely a soul in sight. An elevator and a fire exit were on one side. As Zach turned the corner, someone suddenly burst out from the fire exit.


    The person was dressed in a ck T-shirt and wore a baseball cap pulled down low, almostpletely obscuring their face.


    Sensing something was off, Zach had barely lifted his head when the person hurled a briefcase at him.