"Someone hit Black-Φ, and now this. Is it retaliation? Is turf warfare stepping up? Some unknown faction?"
"I don't know."
Oscuro listens to the heartbeats of the agents around him, but cannot feel his own. His hands have stopped trembling.
"Someone has to know!"
"They abandoned the Towers. Whatever they were doing, it is either done or they've given up on it."
"And the one we'd ask about it is—"
"Yes," Oscuro answers for the room, swallowing tight. "He's been removed."
"Where is OC on all this?"
"They haven't said anything."
"Is all our equipment fucking damaged? Are we just running around, filing reports that don't get read? Is this just one big storehouse of pointless exercises and flaming shit in the sky? Someone just knocked out Black-Φ, someone just knocked out Clem Hoot, and these fucking Lenisker connections don't even respond to our data queries any more. Did we even get a fucking notice of repair back from the team that was sent down to check on the tunnel disturbances we were detecting?"
"We lost signal, but that happens down there. I'm sure it's fine— Ikipr knows what he is doing."
"What?"
"Ikipr. He was the second man, right?"
"No."
Dr. Z. appears on every console screen without so much as a ping, his voice vibrating in every ear.
"Not the original Ikipr, at least..."