The fall ended in silence.

Hale landed first, boots striking something that felt solid but looked like liquid glass. Gray crashed down beside him, data scattering like ripples across a mirror. They were surrounded by light — not blinding, but alive, moving in slow patterns that pulsed with rhythm and intent.

They stood inside the core — the heart of the living network.

The air shimmered with fragments of voices, whispers threading through the pulse. Some were clear, others fractured, all ...