The night felt heavier than usual. Shadows pressed against the walls of the safehouse as if the darkness itself had sharpened teeth. Outside, the forest was restless not with wind, but with movement. Somewhere beyond the treeline, engines hummed, drone rotors sliced the air, and the faint glimmer of searchlights flickered through the mist.
Inside, the team moved like a single organism, tense and silent. Sebastian's fingers drummed along the edge of the table as he scanned the downloaded manifests again, verifying every route, every node, every exposed shipment. His mind was a machine in overdrive, already predicting Vale's possible moves, contingencies, and counterattacks.
Liam monitored comms. Every frequency, every channel, every scrambled signal was under his watchful eye. "They're moving," he muttered, voice tight. "Small recon units. Nothing yet, just probing. But they know someone hit them."
