The midnight air over Pier 17 was a freezing wall of gray fog, rolling off the Atlantic and wrapping the massive industrial cranes in a ghost-like silhouette. This sector of the Brooklyn docklands was officially under a high-security lockdown, completely scrubbed from human transit logs by the Orion Directorate. Tonight, a massive commercial freighter was preparing to depart for the European ports, its lower cargo hold loaded with the refined platinum-infused matrix lines that would further expand Kiara's global alchemical grid.
Standing near the edge of the rain-slicked concrete, Alpha Devandra looked like a towering, dark monolith. His long black coat whipped around his frame in the freezing wind, his golden eyes scanning the perimeter with a restless, intense focus. Behind him, Marcus
