The Spire's upper floors had been sealed for five years, and the door to the Aegis Core chamber had been welded shut with steel plates that should have taken a demolition team to breach. But when Marcus reached the executive level, the plates were peeled back like the skin of a fruit, and the corridor beyond was pulsing with a cold blue light that he had hoped he would never see again.
Elena was at his side, her weapon drawn. Mira's security team had secured the lower floors, but the upper levels were a labyrinth of reactivated sensors and dead drones that were beginning to stir. The old surveillance grid, dormant since the God Protocol had killed the machine, was waking up. And somewhere ahead, in the chamber where Marcus had nearly died, someone was singing.
It was a low, rhythmic soun
