Chapter 86
Spring arrived quietly.
Not with fanfare, not with sudden warmth—but in subtle shifts. The air softened. The trees lining the streets outside their apartment began to bud. The city shed its winter gray and revealed color again.
Kiera noticed these things now.
Before, seasons had been background noise to operations and deadlines. Time had passed in mission intervals, not in blooms or thawing sidewalks.
Now she measured it differently.
By foundation milestones.
By policy updates.
By evenings spent cooking with Kade instead of drafting contingency plans.
But spring also meant movement.
And movement meant opportunity—for everyone.
The first major sign came from South America.
A coalition partner in Bogotá flagged encrypted chatter on a darknet forum—nothing overtly criminal, nothing traceable to Elias directly—but ideologically familiar.
Decentralization.
Autonomous cells.
Localized leadership tied together by encrypted financial scaffolding.
