Arthur slid a folder across the table.
The paper was worn from use. Corners folded. Notes scribbled in different colors over the years.
I opened it, and the first page showed a rough map of the surface.
A red circle surrounded a mountain range nearly twenty kilometers north of the capital.
"That's where the main hive is," Arthur pointed.
"Hive?" Harrison asked.
"We stopped calling it a base years ago."
Arthur tapped the map.
"The structure changes constantly. It grows, expands, consumes nearby material and rebuilds itself. Scouts reported entire sections moving underground and emerging somewhere else days later."
"How many aliens?" I asked.
"No exact count."
"Estimate."
Arthur looked at me. "At least a million."
The room became silent.
Even Harrison's expression hardened.
"Most of them are weak individually. The problem is numbers. "
"The mental network," I replied.
Arthur nodded.
