Chapter 24: Cayne Moves to Contain

The summons came at 0610, while I was still writing.

Not a knock — the building's intercom, crackling through analog wiring that hadn't been upgraded since the civic-allocation days, a flat two-tone chime that Maren startled at from the next room. I was already moving before the second tone finished, hand on the unregistered sidearm Drift had sourced, checking the window angle from the side of the frame before checking anything else. Old habit. The Jakarta kind.

Nothing on the street below. A food-service worker with a delivery cart. A woman in a gray maintenance jacket walking fast with her head down, the particular forward lean of someone late to a shift rather than someone trying to look casual. I gave it fifteen seconds and then crossed to the intercom panel.