RYAN'S POV
The door to the secondary server annex hissed shut with a finality that sounded like a tombstone dropping into place. I engaged the manual deadbolt, the heavy iron bar sliding home with a metallic clack that echoed off the cold, obsidian walls.
The deep Lab had become too much and the glowing screens, Sophie's predatory efficiency, the high-stakes adrenaline, it had all felt like a suit of armor that was three sizes too big. I looked at my hands, the fingers that had just live-streamed a naval commander's career suicide to six billion people. They were shaking. Not with excitement, but with a cold, hollow tremor of a man who had realized he'd just stepped off a cliff and hadn't hit the bottom yet.
