The Triangle didn't suspend collaborative scenarios because they thought it was dangerous.
They suspended them because the results weren't theirs anymore.
Officially, the advisory went out as a calm administrative update—"unpredictable synergy," "evaluation integrity," "resource reallocation."
Unofficially, it was a quiet admission:
Two anomalies interacting had created a third variable they couldn't model.
So they did what institutions always did when their tools stopped working.
They changed the test.
They stopped putting pressure on Dreyden.
And started putting pressure through him.
Dreyden noticed the first change at breakfast.
Not the absence of a directive.
The absence of friction.
A Class C runner bumped into him in the cafeteria line and didn't apologize—because he didn't realize who he'd touched until he looked up and went pale.
Before, a mistake like that would have triggered three things:
A warning notification.
