No Calls

***POV: Gideon***

I issued a direct mandate for silence today. No calls. No interruptions. The directive was not a suggestion. It was a concrete perimeter around my time, a boundary that the people on my payroll are paid handsomely to enforce.

So, when the private line on my sprawling mahogany desk cuts through the quiet with a sharp, electronic trill, the irritation registers in my jaw before t