The night air in the city was heavy with the metallic scent of rain yet to fall. The streets were quieter than usual, an uneasy lull that made Jason’s skin crawl. From his vantage point atop the derelict clocktower, he could see the darkened rooftops stretching toward the river. Somewhere in that darkness, the Ravens were already moving.The intel had been clear—too clear. They’d chosen to strike tonight, but the precision of their movements hinted that this wasn’t just a show of force. The mastermind was pushing something forward, and Jason knew they were running out of time to guess what.A faint click came through his earpiece."Movement on Grid C, three targets, carrying cases," Reza’s voice murmured.Jason adjusted the scope on his rifle. Three dark figures slipped across a rooftop two blocks away. The cases they carried were long, reinforced—military-grade shipment containers. Whatever was inside wasn’t meant for negotiation.“Don’t engage yet,” Jason ordered quietly. “We need t

The first sign came at dawn.Not from the Ravens’ usual broadcast channels, but from the city itself.Streetlights began strobing in synchronized bursts—three short flashes, one long. Then again.Jason didn’t need Callen’s grim expression to know it wasn’t random.“They’ve activated municipal override,” Callen said. “Traffic control, grid power, drone patrols—everything’s been rerouted to a single command hub.”“And I’m guessing they’re not using it to hand out free breakfasts,” Yara muttered.Jason turned toward the main display. The map of the city was no longer a patchwork of fractured red. Instead, crimson rings now pulsed outward from the central plaza, enclosing neighborhoods like a tightening noose.“Lockdown protocol,” Jason said quietly. “They’re sealing every district.”***Within an hour, reports poured in.Road barricades rose from the pavement, cutting off major intersections. Autonomous gun platforms deployed at choke points. Civilian traffic was halted entirely.More di

The first sound was like rain.Only it wasn’t water hitting the rooftops.Jason stepped out of the safehouse’s shattered window and held out his hand. Sharp fragments clinked against his glove—slivers of crystalline metal no bigger than fingernails, falling from the night sky.“They’ve started,” Callen said from behind him. His voice was tight.Jason turned. “Confirm it.”Callen’s rig flickered with incoming feeds from across the city—civilians choking, collapsing in the streets, their eyes glassy and fixed. Drones hovered overhead, releasing more of the metallic rain in spiraling dispersal patterns.Yara’s voice cut through the comms, raw with urgency: “It’s neural dust. Airborne. They’re trying to finish what the array couldn’t.”***By the time the Severed Wing assembled in the war room, the dust was everywhere—clinging to skin, hair, clothes. Callen’s filters hummed at maximum output, but they were barely keeping the air clean.“This is targeted resonance tech,” Yara said, pointin

The barrier wasn’t just light.It was sound, too—low, almost subsonic, pressing into Jason’s chest with every step closer.From this distance, the shimmer was no longer a faint haze; it was a rippling membrane stretched across the street, its surface alive with drifting patterns like oil on water.Callen adjusted the scanner clamped to his forearm. “Field strength’s fluctuating. Not random—pulses in a set rhythm. I can thread us through between peaks, but we’ll only have seconds.”Jason nodded. “Make them count.”Yara scanned the empty rooftops. “Feels too quiet.”“It’s not quiet,” Jason said, eyes narrowing. “It’s waiting.”***They moved into position under the shadow of a gutted tramline. Callen crouched by a rusted junction box, pulling a mess of cables and antennae from his pack.“On my mark,” he said, fingers flying. “Three… two… one.”The shimmer split open like a tear in glass, revealing a narrow corridor of still air.“Go!”Jason led the way, boots pounding against the cracke

The first thing Jason noticed wasn’t the sound of the explosions fading behind them.It was the silence that followed.The hum of the engine hadn’t stopped—it had changed.Lower, rougher, as if the machine itself had been wounded but not killed. The resonance vibrated in his ribs, crawling under his skin.Callen cursed, checking the scanner on his arm. “That’s… not decay. The frequency’s climbing.”Yara steadied herself against the scaffolding. “You said cutting the conduits would stall it.”“I said it should,” Callen snapped. “But look at this—” He turned the display toward them, lines spiking upward in violent waves. “The engine’s pulling harder from the geothermal grid. It’s compensating.”Jason’s stomach tightened. “Then we just kicked it into overdrive.”***Spotlights flared across the pit. Automated turrets unfolded from the scaffold arms, targeting servos shrieking as they locked on.Jason shoved Yara down just as the first barrage tore through the air, shredding a section of