Chapter 44 — The Line You Cross Once
The storm hadn’t stopped.
It had grown steadier.
Rain lashed against the reinforced windows of the secondary operations base, each strike sharp enough to sound like distant gunfire. The city outside blurred into streaks of white and red, traffic lights bleeding into pavement.
Inside, the air felt charged.
Not frantic.
Focused.
Amara stood at the center table, staring at the digital projection Lucia had pulled from the intercepted trail. The signal wasn’t clean, but it was enough. A warehouse district near the old industrial docks. Abandoned on paper. Quiet in reality.
Too quiet.
“They didn’t scramble the signal completely,” Amara said.
“They wanted us to find it,” Lucia replied without looking up from her tablet.
Alessandro’s jaw tightened sl
