Theron's unit to the gate's interior position.
Valka's unit to the construction site's flanking approach.
Freda's documented positions, exactly.
Satou stayed in the command post.
He looked at Lyra.
She looked at the map.
'Everything that can be prepared has been prepared,' he thought. 'The rest is contact.'
"They'll reach the wall at twelve minutes," Lyra said. "Based on approach pace."
"Yes," he said.
"The assessment pause," she said. "When Mira Vale reads the settlement directly for the first time. Based on Cael's modeling, she'll stop at two hundred yards for the first assessment."
"Yes," he said.
"That's where you go out," she said.
"Yes," he said.
She looked at him.
Not the tactical assessment. The other thing.
"Come back," she said.
He crossed to her and held her face in his hands for a moment — not long, just present, just the specific acknowledgment of everything that wasn't in the tactical model.
"I'll come back," he said.
He went to the gate.
—-
