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She either had not noticed or had decided it did not matter.

Now she sat across the room with one leg tucked beneath her, reading the authorization strips while I opened my equipment case.

Her eyes lifted. “What are you doing?”

“Nothing relevant.”

“That answer usually means the opposite.”

I removed a repair strip.

Her gaze followed my hand, then dropped to the bag beside her chair. “Is that mine?”

“Yes.”

She stared as I picked it up. “What are you doing to it?”

“Repairing it. The strap is failing.”

She went quiet.

I worked the reinforcement beneath the torn section and sealed it in place. Simple. Less than a minute.

When I looked up, Talia was watching me differently.

Not suspicious. That would have been easier.

“What?”

She shook her head. “Nothing.”

I tested the strap once, then handed the bag back.

She ran her fingers over the repaired section. “Thank you.”

The words landed strangely.

“It required less than a minute.”

“That doesn’t mean I can’t say thank you.”

“I did not say you could not.”

“You looked like you wanted to.”

“I did not.”

Her mouth curved.

I turned toward the terminal before I could react to that.

Behind me, I heard her test the strap twice before setting the bag beside the chair again.

I opened the only version of my original mission packet I could access without reconnecting directly to the Veil.

Offline.

Untouched since assignment.