The elevator doors had barely hummed shut behind Marcus and Malcolm before Luca retreated into the shadowed alcove of the executive kitchenette. The pristine silence of the 102nd floor was a stark contrast to the chaotic biological violence that had just unfolded.
Dahmer tapped his earlobe, activating the sub-dermal comms link. His voice was cold, clinical rasp of a commander.
"Kaelen. Report."
"I've been monitoring the thermal spikes from the van," Kaelen's voice crackled, sounding strained. "The Alpha's readings went off the charts. It looked like a solar flare on my monitor. What did you do, Dahmer? I felt a ripple in the local field."
"He was in pain," Dahmer said, his eyes tracking a single drop of Malcolm's blood on the carpet. "His own biology was tearing him apart. I didn't have a choice. I stabilized him. I used the Enigma core to rewrite the cellular damage. He's healed. Completely."
