The converted factory's command center was quiet in the hours before dawn, the monitors casting their pale glow across the faces of the night shift. Rook stood at the central command station, his eyes fixed on the intelligence reports spread across the screen, the weight of the new threat pressing down on him like something that had been waiting for this exact moment.
A new player. Someone who'd been watching the war from the sidelines, waiting for the right moment to step in. Someone who'd seen the old guard fall and the networks unite—and had decided that now was the time to make their move.
Irina moved up beside him, her voice low and careful. "Wick's been tracking the communications traffic. The new player is sophisticated—they're using encrypted channels that we haven't seen before,
