Chapter 6. Feedback Loop
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The silence in Corridor Delta-9 wasn't just the absence of sound; it felt like a presence, heavy and cold, pressing against Raj Sharma’s eardrums with an almost physical weight. It was the kind of thick, expectant quiet that followed a sudden, violent noise, amplifying the low, ceaseless hum of the facility’s hidden machinery – the server banks breathing data, the climate controls whispering recycled air – into something that felt less like life support and more like the slow, deep, rhythmic breathing of something vast and indifferent sleeping just beneath the polished concrete floor. He shivered, pulling the collar of his standard-issue grey jumpsuit tighter around his neck, a useless gesture against the invasive chill that seemed to emanate not from the ven
