“Certainly. Would you prefer the sauce separately?”
The table went silent.
Victor studied her before giving a colder smile.
“One memorized sentence. Charming.”
Across from him, a silver-haired woman watched without touching her wine. Her place card read DR. ELISE BRENNER.
Victor continued speaking to her in German.
“As I was saying, our medical interpreters meet every certification requirement. Unlike the cheap labor you find elsewhere.”
Lena recognized HaleBridge immediately.
Six months earlier, the company had hired her for specialized translation work. She had passed evaluations in eighteen languages, skills built through a childhood spent across diplomatic postings, years of study, and an unusually sharp ear for language.
Then she discovered that her medical translations were being replaced with unreviewed machine-generated text.
