'Good. The preparations were done.'
Neo crouched high among wet branches and watched the church through leaves heavy with the last of the night's rain. Dawn had already come, though the jungle never gave light freely. It leaked through the canopy in thin pale shafts, enough to turn the old stone walls gray and show him the silk spread across them from arch to arch.
He had not touched the inside.
That part was non-negotiable. The moment he set a foot in there, that thing would know. A nest like this did not need sight alone. It felt vibration, shifts in air, the smallest disturbance through web and stone. Walking in blind would be the same as placing his throat in its mouth and hoping it felt polite.
So he worked from outside.
