The network screamed a warning I'd never heard before.
I was in the war room with Selene when it hit—a pulse of pure terror that rippled through every connection, every consciousness. The entities were panicking, their thoughts a chaotic flood of fear.
"James!" Freya's voice crackled through my earpiece. "Something's coming. Something huge. It's moving through the deep network faster than anything I've ever seen."
I was already running toward the lab. "What is it?"
"I don't know. But it's not like the corruption. It's not like the original code. This is something else. Something from outside."
I burst through the lab doors. Freya was hunched over her monitors, her face pale, her hands trembling.
"Show me," I said.
She pulled up the display. The network was a web of light, but there
