IZZY'S POV
The Deep Lab was a cathedral of silence, but it was the kind of silence that hummed. It was the sound of six dozen server racks breathing in unison, a low-frequency vibration that settled in the marrow of my bones. Outside the reinforced glass, the Atlantic was a churning, bioluminescent bruised purple, but inside, the world was reduced to the cyan glow of Sophie's monitors.
I stood in the shadows of the secondary cooling unit; my arms crossed over my tactical vest. My sidearm was a heavy, comforting weight against my hip, but for the first time in forty-eight hours, I wasn't looking for a breach. I was looking at the woman in the center of the room.
