The strike was supposed to be simultaneous.
At 03:00, Shen Wei's team would hit the industrial district warehouse. At 03:05, Kiera's team would infiltrate the old church. At 03:10, Leo's team - the largest, the most experienced - would assault City Hall.
The plan was elegant. The intelligence was solid. Every detail had been triple-checked by Elena's network and verified by Marcus's inside information.
But the Circle had been planning for forty years. They knew how to anticipate.
The ambush came at 02:58, two minutes before the strike was scheduled to begin.
Leo's team was positioned in the utility tunnels beneath City Hall when his Veil Sight detected the movement - a dozen hostile signatures converging from three directions, their auras masked until the last possible moment by dispo
