ok finally got around to writing some feedback like i said i would! sorry it took a while because i am a dumb this was a short chapter, like you said, but it was a good worldbuilding/character building chapter. i do wish maybe we'd seen a little more of the R'n'D department, and it felt like spy and engie spent a lot more time talking about the other employees than they did the actual company, but that Saxton Hale bit was so spot on that it made that whole segment totally a gold mine. i liked the little interaction between spy and scoutma, too. it was sweet and a nice touch to show that spy isn't /just/ all business. unless there's something sinister there which i guess is entirely possible overall the characterization was great, as yours always is. the pacing chugged along very nicely, and nothing really felt 'out of place' or unneccesary, i guess. if that makes sense. the one thing that bugged me this chapter was that you tended to repeat words in the same sentence or within short periods of time quite a bit. there were quite a few uses of 'engineer' when referring to both Dell and Saito, for example, and there were another couple that i saved when i started noticing it; "On the screen, the image of Saxton Hale graced the screen." and "looked off camera ... There was some muffled speech off camera". it might just be me being picky but those things did distract me a little while reading. hopefully this was helpful and not just me being a nitpicky loser!