The plan was as simple as it was dangerous.
They couldn't send a message back to the Vanguard; their methods were too sophisticated to trace.
Instead, they had to create a trail of digital breadcrumbs that the Vanguard's extensive network of spies and informants would inevitably find.
Joric, in his element for the first time in years, took charge of the technical side.
"The Vanguard is a network," he explained, his fingers flying across a keyboard.
"They have eyes and ears everywhere. Low-level security officers, data-brokers, even street-level informants. We don't need to alert Vex himself. we just need to make enough noise for one of his pawns to notice."
His plan was to fabricate a digital transport order. He hacked into the Outer Sector's notoriously insecure municipal transport network and created a ghost file for a 'high-value asset' transfer.
The asset was designated only by a string of numbers, but embedded deep in the file's metadata was a redacted medical note mentioning 'critical energy instability.'
The destination was a decommissioned mag-lev station on the edge of a vast, abandoned industrial complex known as the 'Rust-maze.'
"It's the perfect hunting ground," Kiera said, studying a holographic map of the complex that Joric had projected.
"Thousands of corridors, multiple levels, and countless choke points. It's a maze. For a large team, it's a deathtrap. But for a single, fast-moving hunter..."
She left the sentence unfinished, a grim smile touching her lips.
The plan was for Kiera to get to the Rust-maze ahead of time, using her knowledge of the under-tunnels to move unseen. She would become a ghost, waiting in the shadows.
Ryu and Joric would take the official transport route, a slow, armored transport vehicle, making them a visible, tempting target.
Ryu was the lure, and Joric would be his 'handler,' a cynical old medic transporting a valuable, unstable patient.
"They will be watching," Kiera warned Ryu as they prepared. "From the moment you step out of this safehouse, assume every person you see is an enemy. Every street camera, every passing drone. They will be looking for any sign of a trap."
"What do I do?" Ryu asked, his heart pounding at the thought of being so exposed.
"You do nothing," Kiera said, her voice firm. "You look weak. You look sick. You look scared. You are a dust-rat who stumbled into something he can't handle. You are the part you've been playing your entire life. The only difference is, this time, it's a performance."
As the hour of their departure approached, Joric gave Ryu a small injector.
"Another sedative," he said. "This one is milder. It won't knock you out, but it will dull your senses and make the energy signature you're leaking seem more erratic, more 'natural.' It will also make you feel like hell. It should complete the look."
Ryu took the injector, his hand trembling slightly.
This was it.
He was willingly walking into the lion's den, hoping the hunter he was with was faster than the lions.
As the sedative began to take effect, a wave of nausea and dizziness washed over him.
Kiera gave him one last look. "Stay alive, Ryu," she said, her voice low.
It wasn't an order.
For the first time, it sounded like a request.
Then, she was gone, melting into the shadows of the safehouse's exit tunnel, on her way to the Rust-maze.