He took a long drag from his cigarette, the ember the only warm color in the downpour. "Hiding implies someone's looking, Lyra. No one's looked for me since the Purge."
The rain kept falling. Somewhere deep in the city's core, a clock began to tick—not in seconds, but in lines of corrupted code. Horingar- Darkside -Ch.1- -XforU-
Behind him, the penthouse was dark. No servants. No security. Just the soft, rhythmic beep of a terminal he hadn't touched in three years. Tonight, its screen glowed to life on its own. He took a long drag from his cigarette,