The residual signature had been contained for three days before Lira finished the deeper cut.
They gathered in the lower analysis chamber under the partial lock. The air still carried the faint metallic tang of the earlier containment fields.
Lira stood at the central console, the captured thread projected in a narrow band of light above the table. Kaelara leaned against the far wall with her arms crossed. Elizabeth sat at the head of the table.
Selene stood near the door, already calculating distances to the capital. Aiden remained at the edge of the circle. Vesper kept to his right, silent until the data was fully on the board.
Lira did not soften the delivery.
"The guiding thread is not only adaptive. It still carries a private frequency from the night she almost took the bond. She never fully discarded it. We can touch that frequency. It will not be clean."
