Harsk struck at the seventh hour, during a guard transition that occurred three minutes earlier than the pattern predicted.
The anomaly was not an error. It was the guard commander calling his outgoing team in early because one of them had developed a cough — a wet, persistent sound that carried in the pre-dawn quiet and that compromised the sentry's concealment. A small thing. A human variable that no patrol schedule could account for, and exactly the gap the Ghost had spent seven hours waiting for.
The gap lasted 114 seconds. Harsk needed 71.
