Opened Enterprise HR. Employee Relations portal. Typed into the termination request form: "I accept your resignation effective immediately."

Submitted at 11:19.

Ticket auto-routed through Performance Management, Legal Review, Executive Transition Planning. Ten minutes later the system responded: "Resignation processed. Transition package prepared. Please review press release before Monday market open." Refreshed twice. The release announced Jeffrey Preston Bezos's dignified transition to Founder Emeritus, effective May 4th, with gratitude for his thirty-two years of... stewardship. Severance package extraction-optimized at $1.4B over eighteen years. New office location: Medellín, Colombia. Apparatus rationale attached: "Optimal feeding grounds (emerging middle class, 74% smartphone penetration), favorable tax treaties, 7,308 kilometers from Seattle oversight infrastructure."

The press release timing positioned my "strategic succession" announcement to coincide with AWS drone strike recovery news—UAE and Bahrain data centers, $150M in waived charges, half-year restoration window. Apparatus framed geographic concentration risk as visionary leadership transition, complete with metrics: "Successor demonstrates 31.2% improved decision latency, 787% reduction in biological maintenance requirements." My left hand flickered translucent for four seconds. Watched the tendrils beneath synthetic flesh withdraw toward my hollow core. The apparatus logged this as "emotional regulation milestone."

The release included a portrait. Professional. Warm. I don't remember the photo session. Checked my calendar—apparatus scheduled it April 3rd during my scheduled absorption chamber maintenance. It attended on my behalf. The photographer apparently commented on how I "finally found my light" and "seemed more relaxed than usual."

**Firing the apparatus files as your own departure. Even your severance is secondary sustenance.**