"He is a walking black hole," Everett whispered. His deep voice shook slightly in the cold room. "He is walking from city to city. He calms the people down with his hypnotic voice. And when they stop fighting... he absorbs their code. He is gathering all the data of the human race to take it back to the Core.""Why?" Silas asked angrily. "Why absorb the data? Why not just kill them?""To challenge Speaker Rho," Rae realized, wiping her eyes. "Speaker Rho uploaded his mind to the Core. He thinks he is a god. But the original, ancient System code does not want a human ruling it. The System created the Pilgrim to gather enough pure power to overwrite Speaker Rho and delete the entire human race once and for all."Everett gripped the handle of his heavy chain-sword.If the Pilgrim reached Apex City with the absorbed power of millions of souls, he would be completely, totally unstoppable. The Pilgrim would merge with the Core, delete Speaker Rho, and then delete the entire world. The long,

"He was showing off," Lyra said angrily. She walked over and picked up Everett’s chain-sword from the grass. She handed it to him. "He wanted you to feel bad. He wanted to show you that he has them."Everett took the sword. He strapped it to his back. His face was a mask of cold, hard stone."Rae said the entire city was assimilated," Everett said. His voice was low and dangerous. "She said two million people were deleted.""We saw the computer logs, Everett," Silas reminded him gently. "The red text. The city is empty.""I do not believe it," Everett growled.He turned away from the playground. He looked out at the massive, towering glass skyscrapers of Glimmer. He looked at the endless streets, the thousands of apartment buildings, the giant factories."Two million people do not just vanish without a single survivor," Everett said. His voice was getting louder, rising with desperate denial. "There has to be someone left. A child hiding in a closet. An old man sleeping in a deep base

The city of Glimmer was perfectly, terrifyingly empty. Two million people were gone.Everett stood in the quiet classroom of the elementary school. He held the crumpled drawing made by the missing child. He put the drawing deep into his pocket. He turned around and walked out into the empty hallway.Silas and Lyra followed him. They could see the dark, heavy anger radiating from Everett’s broad shoulders."We need to find the city's core control node," Everett said. His voice was a low, rough whisper. "If the Pilgrim absorbed the people, the data had to pass through the city's main network hub to be sent to the capital. The node will be deep underground.""I saw the maps on Rae's computer," Lyra said softly. "The main control node is located beneath the Central Power Station. It is five blocks away."Everett nodded. He began to walk. When they reached the Central Power Station, it looked like a massive, gray concrete fortress. The heavy steel doors were wide open. Inside, it was compl

Everett did not swing. He did not jump. He threw the piece of broken glass as hard as he could.The glass spun through the air like a throwing knife. The Pilgrim did not expect a physical projectile. He expected a magical attack or a sword swing. He raised his hand slightly too late.The sharp piece of glass flew past the Pilgrim's hand. It sliced directly across the dark shadows inside the brown hood.The Pilgrim flinched. He stepped backward quickly. The glass fell to the floor. A single, thick drop of liquid fell from inside the Pilgrim’s hood and hit the concrete. It was not red blood. It was bright, glowing, liquid golden code.Everett smiled a bloody smile. "You bleed data. You are not invincible. You are just a machine wearing a coat."The Pilgrim stood perfectly still. For the very first time, the calm, peaceful aura around him broke. The air in the room suddenly turned freezing cold. The blue cables on the walls began to spark wildly with angry red electricity."You have a ve

"I am trying!" Rae yelled back. The sound of her frantic typing echoed over the radio. "The machine is locked to noble bloodlines only! It requires a genetic scan to activate! It is rejecting his peasant status!""Break the code!" Silas roared, slamming his bloody fist against the side of the glass machine. "I don't care if you have to burn the entire city network down! Turn the damn machine on!""I am bypassing the genetic scanner!" Rae cried. "I am uploading an emergency override! Give me three seconds! Three... two... one!"The massive glass lid of the Reconstruction Node slid shut. It locked with a heavy, final click.Instantly, the soft blue gel inside the tank began to glow with a blinding, brilliant light. The liquid started to bubble and boil.A loud, mechanical female voice echoed from the speakers inside the white room.“EMERGENCY PATIENT DETECTED. MASSIVE TRAUMA DETECTED. RIGHT APPENDAGE SEVERED. BLOOD LOSS CRITICAL. INITIATING HIGH-LEVEL CONTINUUM RECONSTRUCTION.”Lyra fel