The A.F.R. mirror-ambush plan — "There was a brief period of…"
There was a brief period of the tension when it appeared that the night-vision attachment for the binoculars had been misplaced.
Context
The operation's one moment of near-panic is over an optical instrument: the night-vision attachment. The ambush team is blind without augmented sight — the whole mission (watch the checkpoint, spring the mirror) runs on lenses at every stage, surveillance glass on one end and weaponized reflection on the other.