Leverage doesn't announce itself.
It becomes obvious the moment someone hesitates.
The city didn't change overnight. That was the strange part. No new notices. No revised protocols. No carefully worded statements meant to sound cooperative. Everything looked the same—until it didn't.
People started waiting.
Not for approval.
For us.
✦
It showed up in small delays first.
A sanctioned team paused mid-task, glancing toward the edge where we usually worked. They didn't ask for help. They didn't call it in. They just… waited.
Arjun noticed immediately."They're stalling," he said."They're expecting us to step in."
"Yes," I replied."And now we're deciding whether we do."
✦
The other Ishaan aligned, voice quiet and precise.
Leverage becomes visible when absence disrupts flow, he said.
✦
We didn't move.
Not out of spite.Not to make a point.
Because it wasn't ours to fix.
The pause stretched.
Five minutes.Ten.
