Ashworth didn't wait for morning to act on the new timeline.
Within hours of the probing attack, the staging area had transformed, additional Ashen Circle personnel arriving from the mountain facility, equipment doubling in the space of a single night. Victor watched the buildup with a growing sense that whatever line separated careful preparation from desperate improvisation, they were rapidly approaching it.
"We're pushing the activation sessions to twice daily," Ashworth announced at the morning briefing, her voice carrying the strain of someone who hadn't slept since the attack. "Wren, can your body handle that pace?"
"It'll have to," Wren said, though the dark circles under her eyes suggested the honest answer was more complicated than that.
"I don't like this," Samuel said quietly, catching Victor alone after the briefing broke up. "Rushing something this dangerous because the timeline compressed feels like exactly the kind of decision that gets people killed."
