Measured Deflection

Sera barely allowed her expression to shift, though the mention of STAR Labs sent a flicker of something cold through her chest. It was a calculated opening move on Lucius’ part—a test to see how she would react. She had expected scrutiny, even caution, but the directness of his words confirmed something she had only suspected: Wayne Enterprises was already three steps ahead of her.

She exhaled slowly, tilting her head slightly as if weighing his words, letting the silence stretch just long enough to dismantle the power of the statement without outright dismissing it. When she finally spoke, her voice was even, smooth, but laced with a quiet undercurrent of weariness.

“If STAR Labs knows I’m still alive, they haven’t done a very good job of finding me.” She shifted her weight slightly, one hand resting lightly against the conference table. “I’d imagine if they had, I wouldn’t be here having this conversation.”

It was truth, in part, but deliberately framed. She wasn’t confirming whether STAR Labs had tried to track her, nor was she refuting the possibility that they still were. It left Lucius to question what he didn’t know rather than focus on what he did.

Her gaze flicked to the tablet in his hands, catching the faint reflection of security feeds still active on the display. She wasn’t naïve enough to believe this meeting wasn’t being monitored—whether it was just him or a silent observer watching from another location. That was fine. If Oracle was in play, it meant she had a shrinking window before this meeting became something bigger than she intended.

“Tell me,” she said, voice measured but edged with something just short of dry amusement, “is that supposed to be a threat? Because if it is, you should know that I wouldn’t have walked through the front door if I thought STAR Labs was the biggest thing I had to worry about.”

She let the words settle, her expression unreadable. She was pushing back just enough to test the boundaries, to gauge his intent, but not so much as to provoke a hard-line stance. Whatever information Lucius had pulled before this meeting, she needed to know how much of it had changed his opinion of her before she decided how much of the truth to give him.