The lull that descended over Lupus Haven in the wake of the successful, brutal mission was not serene. It was the fragile, brittle hush of a glass bowl in tension, awaiting the first small c***k to appear. The pack had returned, the unopened vial of Hyperion Prime in secure storage in the Level-4 lab, a treasure purchased with Fang's death and the pack's collective innocence. The victory was Pyrrhic, however, tainted by the new, malignant terror of the "singing water."
The tension did not abate; it sublimated, transmuting from the frantic fear of the hunt into a low-grade, chronic fever of paranoia that infected the very stone of the mountain.
The command center, once a clearing house of shared purpose, was a mine field of oblique words and sidelong glances. Conversation, once loose and
