Glass rained from the shattered hospital doors as the first Pulse-walkers stepped through, men and women once human, now moving in eerie, synchronized precision.Their eyes glowed pale gold beneath the emergency lights. Adrian positioned himself in front of the Null agent. “Stay behind me.”She raised her weapon, voice trembling despite her steel posture. “There are too many. What are you”“Just stay down,” he snapped.The Pulse-walkers advanced silently, their shoes tapping in perfect rhythm, reflections of one another. The lead figure, a paramedic with half-burned ID tags, spoke in a voice that wasn’t his own.“Integration incomplete. Directive: retrieve the Architect.”Adrian’s pulse spiked. He whispered, “I’m not yours to retrieve.”He stepped forward, breath shallow, and the air around him shimmered, like heat rising off asphalt. The hospital lights flickered in time with his heartbeat. The Null agent muttered, “God… it’s in you.”“I told you,” Adrian said quietly. “I am the netw