18 million people. The city that has spent 3,000 years being where empires meet.
18 million people. The city that has spent 3,000 years being where empires meet. The Compact survives by knowing too much about everyone to be safely removed — 18 years of reading EO and PCU communications through seabed cables beneath the strait. One EO intelligence service is three steps from confirming this.
The crossing. Every faction pays the toll. Every faction runs intelligence operations through the city. The Bosphorus Compact's Snow Leopard units move through the most surveilled city on the planet with the unhurried precision of people who understand that being watched does not matter if you know more about the watchers than they know about each other.
Eighteen years of reading faction communications through seabed cables beneath the strait. The Compact's deterrence — 'we know enough about everyone to hurt everyone equally' — sustains its independence. One EO intelligence service is three operational steps from determining the extent of what the Compact knows about them specifically. A known deterrent can be overcome.
The Sons of the Serpent's transit infrastructure runs through Istanbul. The Brotherhood of Shadows archive is in Fatih. Every intelligence service on the planet has assets in this city. The city governs itself through the cost of losing it.