#### **Chapter 31: The Director's Focus**
The Director stood before a global threat-assessment map. The array in the Atacama Desert was a glowing red dot, surrounded by concentric circles of defensive protocols. Every hour, she received reports of zero activity. The silence was beginning to unnerve her.
"They're not taking the bait," she said to her second-in-command. "Kyro is too disciplined. The strategist is too paranoid. They suspect a trap."
"Perhaps they are consolidating," the subordinate offered. "Planning a more complex assault."
"No," The Director mused, her eyes scanning the map. "This is a misdirection. They aren't attacking the fortress because they've found a different way to pick the lock." Her gaze drifted from the W.A.O. hardpoints to the sprawling, decentralized web of civilian infrastructure. It was vast, chaotic, and almost impossible to monitor effectively. "They're going after a soft target. Find it. Scan all communications of high-level personnel in key civilian telecommunication and satellite networks. Look for anomalies, encrypted traffic, anything out of the ordinary."
She was no longer waiting for a frontal assault. The hunt had changed. She was now searching for a digital whisper in a global hurricane, and she knew the prototypes were too smart to make it easy for her. A new, more subtle, and far more dangerous game had begun. The Director's focus sharpened. If they would not come to her trap, she would simply have to build one around wherever they decided to appear.