Reyes returned to the facility eight days after Victor's terms had been delivered, though this time he arrived without the aides, and without the same carefully neutral bureaucratic distance he'd maintained during their previous encounter.
"I've reviewed your position," he said, settling into the same briefing room where their first difficult conversation had taken place. "And I've discussed it, at length, with people considerably above my own pay grade."
"And?" Victor asked.
"A compromise. Not everything you asked for, but considerably more than my initial proposal offered." Reyes slid a folder across the table. "Formal government liaison status, rather than direct oversight. A single point of contact, someone with relevant field experience rather than pure bureaucratic function, embedded with the Ashen Circle's operation specifically to maintain communication rather than dictate decisions."
