I laugh.
“You’re serious.”
“Yes.”
“You realize fishing requires patience.”
“I stopped a cascading infrastructure collapse.”
“I think I can handle fishing.”
I grin.
“Well, when you put it that way…”
“No time like the present,” I say, reaching for the tackle box sitting beside the back door.
“Alright.”
“Let’s start with the basics.”
Wren smiles wider.
And as we walk down toward the dock together—
The world finally feels normal again.
For now.
Far away—
Thousands of miles from Los Angeles—
The observer node continues running quietly inside the infrastructure network.
Watching.
Learning.
Waiting.
But here—
On the edge of the lake—
The only thing that matters tonight is the sound of water against the dock.
And the quiet beginning of something that might actually last forever.
53
Wren
Fishing is harder than it looks.
That’s the first thing I learn.
The second thing I learn—
