Chapter 36: The Covenant of Dawn
The command center had become a world unto itself, a sealed chamber where time dilated and contracted with every flicker of light on the tactical displays. The air was stale, recycled through filters that couldn't scrub out the acrid scent of sweat-drenched fear and the metallic tang of overworked electronics. After the frantic, breathless guidance that had pulled Kael's team from the jaws of the Nightclaw vanguard, a new, more insidious tension had taken root—the agonizing, granular crawl of the countdown.
02:15:47
Two hours, fifteen minutes, forty-seven seconds until the device buried at the foot of the Nightclaw spire would either save them or condemn them all.
