Madrid — Two Days Later
The city had not yet shaken off the euphoria of the tram inauguration when the first whispers began.
They were quiet, almost imperceptible at first — a conductor telling a passenger about an "accident" on one of the test lines, a merchant claiming the water from his tap smelled of iron again. The words drifted through taverns and marketplaces like smoke, faint and insidious.
Isandro had already traced two of them back to the same origin: foreign agents operating under false trade licenses. But rather than sweep them up immediately, Lancelot ordered patience.
"Let them believe they are seeding doubt," he said in the Strategy Room, his finger tracing the faint pencil lines on a city map. "And while they think the seed is taking root, we'll lead them to where we want them."
The plan was simple on the surface, complex in execution — a counterespionage maneuver built on misdirection, staged vulnerabilities, and one very dangerous piece of bait.
