The Quartermaster was a ghost. He was a man of average height and build, dressed in the simple, forgettable attire of a mid-level technician.
He had no visible weapons, no menacing aura.
If Ryu hadn't been sensing his cold, machine-like energy, he would have been completely invisible in the thinning crowd.
He entered the noodle bar, sat at a different table, and ordered a bowl of noodles. He did not look at the table with the book.
He simply ate, his movements calm and deliberate.
"He's here," Ryu whispered into his comm.
"But he's not making a move. He's just... eating."
Kiera, hidden in an alley across from the bar, watched the man.
"He knows," she breathed. "He's sensed something is wrong. This is a test."
The Quartermaster finished his noodles, paid his bill, and left the bar.
He walked away, disappearing into the crowd. For a moment, Kiera and Ryu thought the mission was a failure.
He had abandoned the drop. But then, Ryu felt the cold energy signature again, circling the block, moving with a patient, predatory calm.
He wasn't leaving.
He was assessing. He was hunting the hunters.
This was a different kind of fight.
It was not a battle of swords or power, but of wits and patience. The Quartermaster was trying to draw them out, to force them to reveal themselves.
Kiera, guided by Ryu's remote senses, began her own counter-move.
She abandoned her hiding spot and began to shadow The Quartermaster, using the crowded market as her cover, always staying one step ahead, one corner beyond his line of sight.
It was a tense, silent ballet in the neon-lit shadows of the lower market.
Ryu was their nexus, the invisible link between them.
From his rooftop perch, he could feel both Kiera's focused, disciplined energy and The Quartermaster's cold, methodical presence.
He was a chess master, watching the two most powerful pieces on the board maneuver for position.
"He's heading for the old transit hub," Ryu reported, as The Quartermaster moved into a more deserted part of the market.
"The area is empty. He's trying to isolate you, to force a confrontation on his own terms."
"I know," Kiera's voice came back, calm and steady. "But I'm not following him anymore. I'm herding him."
Ryu didn't understand what she meant until he saw her plan unfold in the energy signatures he was tracking.
Kiera was not just following The Quartermaster; she was subtly directing his path, cutting off his escape routes, using her knowledge of the sector's layout to channel him toward a specific location: a narrow, enclosed sky-bridge that connected two dilapidated buildings.
A perfect trap. A place with no exits.
The Quartermaster, for all his caution, did not know the terrain as she did.
He walked onto the sky-bridge, believing he was leading his pursuer into an ambush. He stopped in the middle of the bridge, turned, and waited, a faint, confident smile on his face.
Kiera appeared at the entrance to the bridge, her blade in her hand.
At the same time, another figure emerged from the opposite end, blocking the only other exit. It was Joric, holding a strange, complicated-looking device that hummed with a low, threatening energy.
They had him.
The Quartermaster's smile did not falter.
He looked from Kiera to Joric, then chuckled, a dry, humorless sound.
"Clever," he said, his voice as cold as his energy.
"You used my own caution against me. Very impressive." He reached into his coat, but he did not draw a weapon.
He drew a small, intricate remote detonator.
"But you seem to be operating under the assumption that I came alone."
He pressed the button.
And all around them, from the rooftops and the alleyways, the cold, disciplined energy signatures of a dozen hidden Vanguard operatives flared to life.
The entire market had been the trap, and they had just walked into its center.