POV: Caius

The rehearsal is only half an hour old when the eastern funnel reports contact.

I am in the central command link with Ayla and Zane when the secondary string activates exactly as designed. The outer sensors on the prepared lane thin, then spike. Bodies move into the corridor we left readable. For a single clean second the plan holds: the invitation has been accepted, the inner gates are already dropping, the elevated positions own the ground.

Then the northwest secondary approach lights up at the same time.

Zane’s voice is sharp. “Second entry. Low ground. They split the demonstration.”

The funnel was never the only path. The operative...