The gusted air that had swept down off the Jordanian escarpment was heavy with fine, gritty dust that clung to sweat and itched eyes. For the two men perched on a rocky outcrop a kilometer east of Al-Zataari, this was a mild annoyance, filtered out by the high seals of their tactical goggles. They were not in this location to endure the desert; they were here to dissect it. To dismantle it.
The man, call-sign 'Strix', was prone on his belly, his shape an exercise in stillness. Before him, a device that looked like a high-gain camera system with a pair of unusual, crystalline lenses aimed at the camp. It did not observe visible light. It charted a field of data of its own: thermal flux, bio-signature density, and weak electromagnetic releases that were the dark echo of the GeneCraft System
