The encrypted drive sat on the cold steel of the terminal, its tiny LED light pulsing a rhythmic, mocking crimson against the dim lighting of the underground bunker.
"We pulled it from a dead-drop routing box hidden inside an abandoned medical supply warehouse on the state line," Marcus explained, his voice tight with exhaustion as he stood over my shoulder. "Tempest's people were clearing the facility out, burning documents in a frenzy. My team intercepted the courier before he could incinerate this. It's the only physical piece of data that survived the purge."
I didn't answer immediately. My eyes were locked on the digital interface as Jupiter worked to bypass the complex outer security layers of the drive.
