They left on a Thursday, the small team Neva had designed — Tavri and Iris, Cole's extraction protocols memorized and rehearsed, a vehicle stocked for two weeks though nobody expected to need that long for the initial reconnaissance phase.
The first territory in the corridor was called Hollowmere, and it announced itself, even from the border, as different from anywhere they'd worked before — not hostile like Greyfen had been, not simply isolated. Something quieter. Tavri felt it the moment they crossed the boundary line, the specific quality she'd spent years learning to recognize.
"It's heavier here," she said, to Iris, who was driving. "Not suppression exactly — or not only that. Something more general. Like the whole territory's been holding something for a long time."
Iris glanced
