But tonight—
It ends.
River gestures toward the entrance.
“Alright.”
“Let’s go shut down a ghost.”
And together—
The Golden Team and a few of the Brave Team walk into the building where the final decision is waiting.
61
Wren
The control hub looks exactly the same.
Which somehow makes it worse.
The glass walls.
The endless rows of servers.
The massive display screens stretching across the room.
Everything humming quietly like nothing ever happened here.
Like the city never came within minutes of collapsing.
River and Cyclone move through the room first, clearing corners with the calm precision of men who’ve done this a thousand times.
“Room’s clear,” River says.
“Perimeter secure,” Cyclone adds.
Gage stations himself near the stairwell.
Logan moves toward the outer consoles.
Blade is near the entrance way.
Boone stays beside me.
Always just slightly closer than anyone else.
Protective without making a show of it.
I walk toward the central console.
The same one the second Architect used.
The same place where the cascade countdown once reached four minutes.
My laptop connects to the system.
Immediately—
