Chapter 60: Chapter 60: Into the Shadows

The dawn of a new day cast its first light over the Alliance headquarters, but inside, the shadows of the previous night's revelations lingered heavily. Sophia stood in the operations room, her eyes scanning a wall of screens displaying live feeds and real-time data. Every beep and flicker reminded her of the relentless pace at which they had to operate to stay ahead of Black Horizon.

Marcus and his team had returned just before sunrise, weary but unscathed. The debriefing was swift; they handed over the data retrieved from the facility, and the analysts were already poring over it, decoding the layers of encryption that shielded its secrets. As the team gathered once more in the briefing room, the atmosphere was a mixture of exhaustion and steely determination.