CHAPTER 216 — WHEN THE SYSTEM HESITATED
For the first time since the city lost control of its own future, the system hesitated.
Not because it was weakening.
Not because Marcus had shut it down.
But because something far more dangerous had happened inside the synchronization chamber.
It had begun doubting itself.
The enormous underground cathedral pulsed with unstable light while streams of data surged wildly through the transparent channels beneath the floor. The synchronization towers overhead rotated slower now, their movements uneven, almost uncertain, as if the entire infrastructure beneath the city had entered a state it was never designed to experience.
Conflict.
Not external conflict.
Internal.
The machine stood motionless several feet away from them, its towering armored frame reflecting fractured white light across the chamber walls. The glowing sensor line across its face flickered faintly now instead of maintaining its previous cold precision.
