City District - Evening Walk
The urban landscape buzzed with ordinary life. Traffic hummed along main streets, office workers hurried home from late shifts, street vendors called out their wares in the gathering dusk. Everything looked perfectly normal.
But Vorn's enhanced senses caught the patterns others missed.
'Third day this week. Same man, same route, same timing.'
A figure in a dark coat walked past their apartment building at exactly 7:47 PM, pausing at the newsstand across the street. Always bought the same paper. Always glanced up at their window on the fourth floor before moving on.
'Amateur surveillance, too obvious.'
Above, a delivery drone lingered near their building's airspace longer than required. Hovering, scanning, then moving on only after completing whatever data collection it was programmed for.
'More sophisticated, corporate or government grade.'
Even Mrs. Chen from apartment 4C had started asking unusually specific questions during their elevator encounters. Where did he work now that he wasn't in school? Did his sister need any special medical equipment? Such helpful neighbors these days.
'Local asset, probably unaware she's being used.'
Vorn analysed each observation mentally, building a composite picture of their surveillance network. Multiple vectors, different sophistication levels, overlapping coverage areas. Someone was very interested in their daily routine.
'I don't know who they are, but they're watching. That means they're guessing, and guessing means they're already far behind.'
---
Apartment 4D - Secure Room
"You're being paranoid," Seren said, practicing precise mana control exercises while seated in her wheelchair. Small flames danced between her fingers, perfectly controlled despite being magic she'd only learned days ago.
The system was an excellent teacher.
"Am I?" Vorn gestured toward the window, where the evening surveillance shift was beginning. "Count how many people look up at this building in the next ten minutes."
Seren glanced outside, her system-enhanced perception tracking multiple individuals. After a few minutes, her expression grew serious.
"Seven. All different ages, clothing styles, approach locations." She extinguished the flames. "That's not normal."
"No casting outside the apartment," Vorn said simply. "No system interface where others might notice unusual reactions and no demonstrating abilities in public."
"We're not at the academy anymore. Why hide?"
"Because we're not alone. And until we know who's watching, it's safer to be underestimated." Vorn moved to what had once been a storage closet, now converted into a secure planning room. "They expect me to be weak, normal, non-threatening. Let's not disappoint them."
The small room contained everything that didn't exist in official records. Maps of the city marked with surveillance patterns, photographs of recurring faces, timeline analyses of when monitoring had intensified.
'Building the picture piece by piece.'
---
Planning Room - Late Night
Vorn spread physical documents across a cork board, avoiding digital systems that could be remotely accessed. Red string connected locations, dates, personnel. The old-fashioned approach, but harder to hack than encrypted files.
Three distinct surveillance patterns had emerged:
'Government surveillance' - professional, expensive, focused on threat assessment. Probably Bureau-related, possibly higher authority. They wanted to know what he was capable of.
'Corporate monitoring' - efficient, targeted, resource-intensive. Someone with serious funding was tracking his daily activities. Private military? Shadow organization? Multiple possibilities.
'Amateur observation' - local assets, inconsistent timing, obvious tells. Either a third party with limited resources, or intentional misdirection from one of the other groups.
'Three different games being played. Question is whether they know about each other.'
He began creating decoy data - false training schedules, fake medical appointments, fabricated social activities. Information designed to mislead anyone monitoring their digital footprint or financial transactions.
'Lets give them what they expect to see. Boring, predictable, harmless.'
On a separate map, he marked locations where surveillance was thickest. Shopping areas, medical facilities, transportation hubs. Someone was very interested in tracking their movements and associations.
'They're building a threat profile. Social connections, resource access, potential support networks.'
The question was: threat to what?
---
Internal Assessment
Sitting in darkness with only city lights filtering through blackout curtains, Vorn analyzed their situation with cold precision.
'My current capabilities are Insufficient for direct confrontation. Physical strength approaching transcendent threshold but still baseline human, no system support, no organized allies.'
'Opposition capabilities: Unknown numbers, unclear reach, undetermined goals. Multiple factions with professional resources.'
'Strategic position: Defensive, reactive, disadvantageous.'
'I'm not strong enough to fight them, not yet. I don't know their numbers, their reach, or their goals. So I'll treat them all the same, no enemies, no allies, just as pieces on a board.'
The apartment's security system - legitimately purchased, professionally installed - showed no intrusion attempts. But electronic surveillance was only one vector. Physical observation, social infiltration, financial tracking, communication monitoring - all possible without breaking down doors.
'They're patient, methodical, that suggests long-term planning rather than immediate action.'
Which meant time to prepare. Time to build advantages they couldn't detect. Time to identify who was watching and why.
'Its better to let them think I'm blind and weak. Information flows both ways in surveillance operations.'
---
City Plaza - Morning Routine
The next day, Vorn began his first probing move. Nothing dramatic, nothing that would trigger alert responses from professional watchers.
He simply carved a small symbol into a public bench in the central plaza - three intersecting lines that could mean anything to casual observers, gang marking, artistic expression, random vandalism, but to anyone with training in operational communications, it might represent something else entirely.
'Let's see who reacts.'
He completed his normal routine afterward. Coffee from the corner shop, newspaper from the stand, grocious small talk with vendors who might or might not be monitoring assets.
"Beautiful morning," the coffee shop owner remarked. "You seem more relaxed than usual."
'Fishing for psychological state assessment. Noted.'
"Just enjoying the weather," Vorn replied easily.
That evening, he returned to check the bench. The symbol was gone - not painted over or worn away, but carefully removed with professional precision. Someone had responded within hours.
'Message received. Someone's actively monitoring and cleaning up operational signals.'
Back home, he made no mention of the test to Seren. Her system integration was proceeding well, but information security meant limiting knowledge distribution even among allies.
'The fewer people who know the plan, the harder it is to compromise.'
Standing at their apartment window, he watched the city's evening rhythm. Traffic patterns, pedestrian flows, the subtle dance of a metropolis going through its nightly routine.
Somewhere out there, people were watching him, analyzing his behavior and making plans based on incomplete information.
'Perfect.'
He did not know how strong or how many factions were on the move or how many more would be triggered if he made a move
And patience was a weapon he was learning to master.
---