Two days after the NEXUS tower went down, Pivithuru and Sashini were off the grid, hiding in an abandoned observatory just outside the city.
The news blamed the explosion on a gas leak.
But Sashini had decrypted a second layer in the drive: Project Black Echo — a list of former NEXUS operatives and a mysterious figure known only as "The Architect."
"The Architect created the zero signal," Sashini said. "And he's planning a live demo—on the city's emergency broadcast system. Midnight."
"That's in seven hours."
They both knew what that meant: the real threat hadn't even started yet.
---.