Hansen and Myers

Dogtown, 7:32 a.m.

Everything was normal.

Dogtown seemed unusually quiet today.

That was not to say there were no chaotic shootouts on the streets, nor that there were no explosions loud enough to be heard throughout all of Dogtown. Rather, the atmosphere itself was exceptionally quiet.

Every group that had operated in Dogtown for years sensed something subtle.

Dogtown seemed especially lawless today.

Or rather, Barghest, who normally came rushing in whenever something major happened, seemed slower to respond today, as if they needed to report and verify every incident before deploying.

Only the drug addicts on the streets had noticed nothing about this strange atmosphere. To Reid, who was making his final preparations, it meant only one thing.

Hansen had noticed something.

As an experienced agent, he could see why Barghest was acting so strangely. The intelligence he had gathered also gave him access to Barghest's operations today, and within those operations, Reid saw a circle.

A large circle surrounding Gemini Blue and the stadium.

All probes and disturbances deliberately created or commissioned by New American personnel could at most touch the edge of that circle. Beyond that boundary, no matter how violent the explosions or how far the chaos spread, Barghest remained still.

It was as though Barghest was not on duty anywhere outside that area today.

Reid could tell that the distance to the edge of that circle was the limit.

The limit of what?

The limit of how quickly Barghest personnel could return.

Barghest was now even pulling back the forces that maintained basic order. They were like a clenched fist, unwilling to waste even the slightest bit, gathering all their strength for a fatal strike. Even their responses to the chaos seemed to be some form of probing and verification.

If Barghest maintained this posture,