The mainframe room hummed with the quiet energy of machines working at full capacity.
James stood at the center of the room, his eyes fixed on the monitors that displayed the progress of the countermeasure broadcast. Alexander worked at the console, his fingers flying across the keyboard, his face illuminated by the glow of the screen. The rest of the team stood in a loose semicircle behind them, their faces etched with a mixture of hope and exhaustion.
The countermeasure had been launched. The sequence was propagating across the globe, neutralizing the activation signal that had threatened to awaken the remaining children. But James knew better than to relax. The Shepherd had been a master of deception, and his final words echoed in James's mind: "The Reckoning is coming."
"How long un
