Sentinel BioTech HQ, Manila — Friday, 6:30 PM
The office was quieter than usual. Most of the day staff had already gone home, leaving only the soft hum of the ventilation and the distant rhythm of typing from a few night-shift analysts. The sun had dipped behind the skyline, leaving streaks of amber and violet painting the glass windows of Sentinel BioTech's top floor.
Matthew sat across from Angel in the Situation Room, a corner conference suite repurposed for war-room style planning. A digital map of Luzon was projected across the wall, with portions of Central and Northern provinces highlighted in light blue—land corridors under negotiation.
A second window showed video feeds—one from a closed-door Zoom meeting with JR East's executive delegation in Tokyo, the other from a tablet recording of landowner consultations held in Tarlac earlier that afternoon.
