The lecture hall smelled like polished steel and fear-sweat.
Voss stood at the front, slim and sharp in a black jacket, remote in hand. The massive screen behind her glowed with live footage: a tired woman in a ThorneMart uniform arguing with her kid over dinner.
"Watch," Voss said, voice calm. "Dependency is gravity."
She clicked. The woman's Thorne Score flashed red. Groceries locked. Rent warning popped up.
"Mom, I'm hungry," the kid whined.
The mother's hands shook as she scanned the app again. "Just wait, baby. Score will update in six minutes."
Kai sat three rows back, jaw tight. Six minutes. Like the kid's stomach gives a damn about timers.
"Classic anchor point," Voss continued. "The basic needs tied to compliance."
Lena slid into the seat beside him, tablet already open. "Remedial track had the same syllabus anyway. Didn't want to miss the good stuff."
Theo didn't blink. He was fixed on like he was memorizing code.
Voss switched the feeds once again. A man in his forties stared at an empty fridge. His wife's voice crackled through the speakers.
"Honey, the school says we need another twenty points this month or they flag us for counseling."
"Counseling," the man muttered. "That's what they call it now?"
He opened the ThorneMart app, thumb hovering. A cheerful notification chimed: Scan three more items for +5 loyalty bonus.
Kai's stomach turned. He saw the man's shoulders slump before the guy even tapped buy.
"See the elegance?" Voss asked, pacing slowly. "He chooses the chain himself. Every time."
A girl two seats over whispered, "That's… efficient."
Kai couldn't stay quiet. "That's a man deciding between feeding his family and keeping his pride. Not the same thing."
Voss turned. Her eyes locked on him. "Pride doesn't pay rent, Kai."
She clicked once more. New video: an old couple on a couch, smiling at their granddaughter on screen.
"Grandma, can you send the new shoes? The ones with the stars?"
The grandmother glanced at her score. It blinked amber. She forced a bigger smile. "Of course, sweetie. Grandma's got you."
She tapped approve. The score ticked up. Green again.
"Emotional leverage," Voss said. "With family as currency, they will accept it, then dependency becomes invisible. They will defend it."
Lena nodded fast. "Self-reinforcing loop. Brilliant."
Kai's hands curled into fists under the desk. They're not loops. They're people.
Voss killed the feed. The lights rose a fraction.
"Today's exercise," she said. "Teams of three. You have twenty minutes to design a dependency vector for a single-parent household. Make it concealing. Highest score wins priority dinner seating."
Chairs scraped as the students grouped up.
Chairs scraped. Students grouped up fast, some of them already talking before they even sat down.
Two rows over, a group of three leaned together immediately, one boy already typing with both thumbs, grinning.
"Okay, okay… subscription model," he said. "Auto-renewing loyalty tier. Miss one payment and the kid's school access drops. But frame it as a membership. Call it something warm. FamilyFirst, ThorneCare. Something with a soft word in it."
The girl beside him laughed. "Oh that's evil. I love it. Add a referral bonus, get your neighbor to sign up and your score jumps ten points. They do the recruiting for us."
"Peer-to-peer dependency," the third one said, already nodding. "Beautiful. This is genuinely fun."
Kai heard every word. Genuinely fun. He turned back to his own tablet.
Lena slid her chair closer without asking. "I'll lead structure. Theo, metrics. Kai… try not to soften it."
Kai gave her a flat look. "Wouldn't dream of it."
They bent over the shared tablet. Lena typed fast.
"Base need: food credits," she said. "Tie it to daily check-ins on child's school tablet. Miss one, ten-point deduction. Add a gratitude prompt each night. She paused a little bit, she then added. "'What did ThorneMart make possible today?' Voice analysis for sincerity."
Theo nodded once. "Layer in sibling comparison. Show the kid next door's higher score. Social pressure compounds."
Kai stared at the screen. The template stared back, cold and perfect.
He cleared his throat. "What if we add a small win instead? Like… bonus points if the parent reads to the kid for fifteen minutes. Keeps the family together a little longer. Might even make the compliance feel less like a cage."
Lena's fingers paused mid-type.
Theo glanced sideways, expression blank.
Voss had been circling the room. She stopped behind their table.
The silence stretched.
Kai met her eyes. "Just saying. People fight harder when they think they're protecting something real."
Voss studied him, head tilted. Her gaze sharpened, dangerous interest flickering like a blade catching light.
"Interesting suggestion, Kai." Her voice stayed soft. "Very… kind."
She leaned in closer, voice dropping so only their table heard.
"Kindness is a variable, Mr. Lennox. And variables break models."
Her eyes narrowed, then she straightened and moved on.
The three of them sat still for a moment.
Lena turned to him first, voice low and precise. "You understand what you just did, right? She clocked it. That suggestion is in your file now whether you delete it off this tablet or not."
"I know," Kai said.
"Then why—"
"Because it was true." He kept his voice flat. "And I'm not going to sit here and pretend the cruelest version is always the smartest one."
Lena held his gaze for a second, then looked away. "That kind of thinking gets people reassigned."
Theo spoke without looking up from the tablet. "She's right. Sentiment is a liability in this room."
Kai glanced at him. The words were Lena's point, but the way Theo said it was flat, almost rehearsed. Kai didn't push it.
He looked back at the tablet. The word KINDNESS still blinked in the suggestion field, cursor hovering.
Shit. They're already measuring how kind I am.
And from the way Theo's eyes hadn't quite left the screen, someone had been measuring for longer than tonight.