Excerpt
The Directorate had chosen to turn its gaze East. The Russian leader, whose ambiguous game of power and threats had gone on for years, had become the new variable to contain. On the large holographic screen, digital maps of Russia appeared, bright markers highlighting military bases, depots, and strategic junctions. The officers’ voices recited parameters, risk scenarios, probability projections.
In a restricted study, Alexander Volkov received an encrypted message on an unofficial device: a direct communication, impossible to trace or ignore. A single sentence flashed on the screen: a twelve-hour ultimatum to withdraw active military operations in Ukraine and enact an immediate ceasefire. Otherwise, the “Decennial Operations” would proceed with the targeted neutralization of those responsible. No remorse. No exceptions.
“What if we ourselves were becoming the very danger we set out to eliminate?”
The Kremlin was steeped in a sepulchral silence. Volkov ordered the Security Council to be convened, convinced it was an American attack. But General Orlov stopped him: it was not the United States’ style. If it was an attack, it came from someone else. Someone working in the shadows.
And as the ultimatum’s clock ticked down, the enemy remained invisible. A small, understated symbol appeared at the bottom of the message: a geometric figure resembling a rune, a mark they had already seen in contexts that once seemed like coincidences. Now, it could no longer be one.