#Chapter 39: Line in the Storm

Rain slashed sideways across the summit compound as the storm hit in full. Thunder rolled in overlapping waves, loud enough to shake the windows in their frames. The halls buzzed with more than weather—the kind of static that comes when people sense a change in the air but don’t yet know its shape. Conversations dipped to whispers. Doors shut faster. Everyone moved like they were trying not to be seen. An emergency meeting was called just after dawn. Beta stood at the front of the operations room, the walls humming with tension as the council filtered in. Most of them still looked half-asleep. No one asked questions. They could feel the gravity. Not just the literal storm, but something larger—coiled, waiting, inevitable. “Two masked figures approached the west perimeter fence last night,” Nathan said, clicking through grainy surveillance footage. “They didn’t get through. But this wasn’t a random test.” The image on screen was jerky and obscured by rain, but the shapes were clea