He paused.
Which assessment it is holding will not be determined by continued observation. It will be determined by contact.
He closed the journal.
The settlement's patrol patterns, according to the observers, were at standard rotation. Not doubled, not elevated — exactly what Cael's reports from his time inside the corps had described as the settlement's baseline defensive posture. Either they hadn't raised it, which would be reckless. Or they'd raised it and were concealing the raise, which was sophisticated. Or they'd raised it before his observers arrived and then returned to standard when they assessed that his observers had established their position, which would mean his observers' presence had been detected and accounted for before the observers believed they'd taken position.
'That last option,' Caldris thought.
That last option suggested a detection capability that exceeded what his models had assigned the settlement's perimeter.
