MILOThe border report arrived at 9am the way it always arrived, the same format, the same operative, the same shorthand that I had been reading for six years and could process in under three minutes without a second coffee.Pack movements on the northern approach. Rogue activity down from last month. A trader who had passed through the territory three days ago with no issues. Contact list for the week, six names, standard.I read the first name.Second name.Third.Fourth.Fifth.I stopped.The name sat on the page the way names sometimes sat on pages when they arrived somewhere you had not expected them, carrying a weight disproportionate to the five letters that composed them.Ines.A contact of the trader. Pack-adjacent, the report noted. Passing through. No affiliation flagged.I sat with the report in my hands for a moment that lasted longer than the report required.Then I continued reading.Sixth name. End of contact list. Routine observations on the eastern perimeter, nothing
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