Chapter 59: The Shift in Programming
Rowan Mercer lowered his ivory mug to the silicone pad on the console table, the dark porcelain tapping against the surface with a quiet, final click that echoed through the seventy-degree stillness of the bunker. He did not linger over the empty plate or the aroma of seared meat that still drifted lazily toward the ceiling extraction vents. Instead, he pulled a slim, ruggedized slate tablet from the charging dock set into the console wing, his thumbs tapping out an administrative macro sequence across the glass.
The command cleared the video patch bay in less than a second, severing the high-definition studio feed from the primary transmission lines.
Eighty feet above the ground, out on the ceramic-coated northern wall of Alderwood Manor, the projec
