"And Lanthar?" I ask.
"I reached him last night, as you asked. His forces are mobilizing. They'll be ready to move with us at tomorrow's dusk."
In the conference room, I mark the three positions on the screen.
"Three positions confirmed," I say. "The farms are visible and Konstantin may not know it yet."
"The distress signal from the safehouse," Julian says. "Alexei said it pinged Konstantin's network. Even if the wards report nothing, someone is already looking at north Georgia."
"Then we move tomorrow at dusk," Celeste says. "With Lanthar's forces. Full strength. Before Konstantin connects the safehouse to the wards. Before he moves them again."
"Three teams," I say. "Three farms. Simultaneous."
She looks at me across the table. Her chin lifts. Her spine straightens. The crescent beneath her collar brightens by a degree, a pulse that matches my own.
"Maximus and I take the eastern farm," she says. "Buffer zone. Hardest target. It needs both of us." She looks at Julian. "You lead the southern strike. Elevated coordination, comms across all three sites. Two of Okonkwo's fighters as your ground team."
"Aye," Julian says.
"Marcellus takes the western farm." She looks toward the doorway. Marcellus is already there. He fills the frame and waits. "Overwhelming force. Chen's four fighters plus two of our compound combat vampires. In and out. You breach, you clear, you extract the humans, you pull back."
"How many hostiles?" Marcellus asks.
"Unknown. Alexei knows how Konstantin builds these facilities. He'll brief your team on the layout patterns before you go."
Marcellus nods once.
"Erik's wolves run perimeter on all three sites," I say. "Suppression and extraction logistics. Kael coordinates with Erik's authority. Lanthar's forces reinforce on the ground."
"Seraphina and Mira break the remaining wards on the eastern farm," Celeste says. "Whatever Adrienne didn't build, they bring down."
Seraphina inclines her head.
"Alexei is with our team," Celeste says. "He asked Julian directly. He wants to read the building in person."
She looks around the room.
"We deploy at tomorrow's dusk. Julian, I want comms tested across all three sites before we move. Marcellus, your team assembles at the south exit. Everyone fed and briefed."
Julian marks the screen. Marcellus turns and leaves. Seraphina follows.
Celeste stays at the table. Her fingertip traces the eastern farm's position in the buffer zone.
"Simone?" she asks.
"With the girl."
"Good."
She lifts her fingers from the map.
"I need Mira for the strike team. Will you tell her?"
Mira is in the garden.Sitting on the low wall where Seraphina sat when she told us about Adrienne. Her hands are open in her lap, palms up, the posture of someone listening for a frequency the rest of us can't hear. The air around her carries a static charge that lifts the fine hair on my arms when I sit beside her.
The garden smells of damp soil and the faint mineral scent the oaks release when the wards adjust. A bird is singing in the branch above us. It shouldn't be. The compound's wards suppress most wildlife within the perimeter. But the oaks have been changing since Seraphina came back from Thessivane, thickening, leaning toward sounds that aren't sounds, and the birds have followed.
"Celeste needs you for the strike team," I say.
