I stood at the threshold of Arkea's Main Surgical Suite, my tactical pistol still aimed at the silver body that had just risen. On the floor, Marcos lay motionless after a brief scuffle. The smell of burnt metal and antiseptic mixed with the scent of cold seawater was now suffocating.
"You just made a very bad choice, Elara," I said, my voice echoing in the room now lit only by red emergency lights.
Cypher—or whatever form they now took within the Eternal Corpus—smiled faintly. The red light from its eyes reflected off the polymer surface of its new body. "My bad choice was trusting you ten years ago, Jax. My best choice is this."
Behind them, the main screen showed transfer numbers frozen at 48%. However, the structure alarm wailed incessantly, indicating catastrophic damage to the geo
