Chapter 9. Fallout and Fragments
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The sterile, artfully minimalist office of Evelyn Sterling, Chief Operations Officer for Special Projects at the Thorne Foundation, hummed with the barely perceptible thrum of immense, silent power. Sunlight, surgically sliced by automated blinds, cast sharp, geometric patterns across the obsidian desk, a surface so polished it reflected Sterling’s own composed, severe features like a dark, still pool. Opposite her sat Mr. Alistair Finch, looking less like a disgraced academic rescued from obscurity and more like a predatory bird of prey granted a temporary, luxurious perch. His eyes, bright and unsettlingly intelligent, scanned the array of news feeds Sterling had conjured onto a vast, wall-mounted holographic display, a faint, almost hungry gleam in
