fading light, the gathers the rope and tosses it over the edge to make sure it’s clear of anything that might snag it on his climb down. The last thing he needed was to be a few meters short at the bottom.

But then he freezes. Just as he throws the backpack over his shoulder and a leg over the edge. Despite knowing not to look back he was expecting some sort of a reaction from the crowd after the kill was made. But there was nothing. Not a whisper. Where they all now in a neutral ‘switched off’ state like how the smaller swarms reacted when their leader was taken out?

He expected the Lieutenants to take control as the hierarchy splintered but if they were all frozen for a few minutes he could take the rest of the leadership out and solve a