The Vitamin Protocol

Elena slipped the memory card into her pocket, her heart racing. The golden retriever in the lobby didn't even look up from its bed—security's precious mascot, more decoration than deterrent.

She'd spent six months embedded at NutriCorp, three years of corporate spy work behind her, and this was the payoff: proof they'd been falsifying clinical trials for their new miracle supplement.

The break room timer chimed. Time for her morning ritual: the vitamin protocol she'd performed religiously since joining the company. Two orange pills from the company-branded dispenser, swallowed with lukewarm coffee. A performance of belonging, of being one of them.

Today, the pills felt heavy in her throat.

Marcus appeared in the doorway, his tie loosened, that familiar crooked smile playing at his lips. "The investors are arriving at noon," he said, stepping closer than necessary. His hand brushed her waist—casual intimacy that had been escalating for weeks. "After the presentation, maybe we celebrate?"

She should have felt something. Anything. Instead, she watched his reflection in the break room mirror: a man who believed he was falling in love, who had no idea the woman he trusted was dismantling his company piece by piece.

The dog whined in the distance.

What was loyalty, really? You gave it to corporations that replaced you without thought, to lovers who'd leave when things got difficult, to countries that sent you to war. But the dog in the lobby—that creature would die for its humans without hesitation. Maybe that's what she'd been searching for all these years: someone who'd look at her with that same uncomplicated devotion.

Marcus's phone buzzed. He checked it, paled. "They know," he whispered. "The clinical data—someone leaked it."

Elena's hand tightened around the memory card in her pocket. The vitamin dispenser hummed, dispensing another dose for the next employee.

"I'll handle it," she said, already planning her exit strategy, already mourning the version of herself that might have stayed. Already wondering if there was any supplement, any pill, any vitamin that could cure this particular hollow ache in her chest.