Gelion appeared to consider this framing.
"The monitoring network interface points were unsecured," Gelion said. "Using those unsecured monitoring network points was the best way to gather information from the surface without sending people into a high-risk area."
"You were spying on that fucking stupid Mordecai's own network from inside his kingdom," Rex said.
"Intelligence gathering," Gelion said, and the difference he saw between the two frames was real to him.
"And the second-stratum personnel you brought through the threshold?" Rex said.
"The second-stratum civilization's contact window required a surface-adjacent operational position," Gelion said. "The Underlayer represented the appropriate staging ground."
"Mordecai's kingdom was already the most developed infrastructure in the accessible strata."
"That's why you used it," Rex said.
"Without asking," Gelion added, as if he were confirming a fact instead of admitting a problem.
