The blue light of the holographic tactical table cast long, sharp shadows across Ares’s face. He stood in the center of the underground command center, his eyes locked on the digital map of the Capital. The revelation from Pier 44 still echoed in the silent room.
"Serpent’s Kiss," Ares murmured, his voice a low, vibrating hum. "Davies was terrified of the name. But it isn't just a single broker, is it, Elias?"
Elias sat at the primary terminal, his fingers flying across the mechanical keyboard in a blur of motion. "No, Commander. I’ve been running the encrypted algorithms Saphira pulled from Davies’s hard drive. 'Serpent’s Kiss' isn't a person. It’s a decentralized intelligence network. A spiderweb woven directly into the federal infrastructure."
"Can you trace the threads?" Clara asked
