The United Nations Security Council chamber was a stage of polished wood and terrified light. The air, usually thick with the slow-burning embers of diplomatic grievance, vibrated with icy, slicing fear. The usual agenda—border disputes, humanitarian crises, nuclear proliferation—had been swept aside. There was only one item on the agenda today. The Jamil Anomaly. The Dawud Effect. The Biohacker Prophet.
The Russian ambassador, a man with a face like a clenched fist, spoke first, his voice echoing in the tense silence. "For centuries, the international community has striven to maintain a balance of power, a stability however fragile, based on mutually understood principles. This… creature… is a unilateral rewriting of the rules of existence itself. He is not a state actor. He is not a non
