The reunion in Aegis Haven wasn't a triumphant homecoming. It was the solemn reporting of a soldier to a command center after a personal retreat that had nearly cost them the war. The silent map of future outbreaks was a constant, grinding pressure in Reuben's mind, a burden he now carried alone. He labored with a frenzied, almost desperate intensity, allocating DP, redirecting supplies, and issuing orders, but the warmth, the human connection that had motivated the HON in the past, was lacking. He was a productive machine of calculation, but the heart of the network was ailing.
He was in his Spartan office, reviewing a frustratingly slow procurement order for typhoid vaccines, when Liam's voice, unusually tentative, came through the intercom.
"Reuben? There's… someone to see you. A repo
