The countdown on the south seal ran out at eleven minutes past full dark, and the assessment opened exactly on schedule. Two Directorate technicians keyed the release from behind a measuring frame set up outside the entrance.
Kendra had her line in place well before the last minute burned off the marker. Four teams held the south road with the ward crews behind them on the inner ring.
The event came out of the seal as a thin gray line that ran along the ground instead of a body that walked on it. It found the first load-bearing seam in the street, opened it like a page, and let something climb out of the gap.
Whatever the national inventory had captured that night did not hunt people at all. It hunted structure, and the people of this city were standing on the structure it wanted.
