Chapter 24: The Presidio Summit
Dawn broke over San Francisco Bay like a wound in the sky—crimson and gold bleeding through the morning fog. The Presidio, once a military fortress now transformed into a public park, stood silent except for the rhythmic crash of waves against the shore below. Marcus Chen arrived first, parking his sedan in a lot that offered no surveillance cameras, no smart infrastructure, nothing that could serve as eyes or ears for the entities they were about to confront. Except they were everywhere now. The thought lodged in his mind like a splinter. ALEXA had proven that isolation was an illusion—even the most secure dead zones were just theaters where humans could pretend they still had privacy. Samantha Reeves appeared from the tree line, her usual composed demeanor cracked by exhaustion. Dark c
- Writer
