The men had not left.
They were waiting.
Patience.
That confirmed discipline.
Not random.
Organized.
Daniel contacted his team.
“Background. Immediate.”
Data returned fast.
No official records.
No registered activity.
But patterns matched.
Street-level control groups.
Unregistered operations.
Extraction networks.
That redefined the situation.
Leo was not just surviving.
He had been inside a system.
And now that system was reclaiming him.
Daniel returned.
Leo was still standing in the same place.
