POV:Marcus

  "It’s still uncanny to watch them sometimes," James remarked, his eyes following the movements of the drones below us. He wasn’t the first to notice it, and I knew he wouldn’t be the last. We had all seen them—the drones that now moved more like living beings than machines.

  I glanced down at Alpha, observing how he interacted with the other models, the way he seemed to analyze everything, even when he wasn’t directly involved. His movements were fluid, purposeful. It was almost as if he understood something no one else did.

  I answered James with a quiet sigh. "In a rhetorical sense, they are living. And if you count Patel's files as true, some of them are more than that."

  James snorted, a chuckle escaping his lips. "Yeah, says the one who loves his drone." He grinned. "When do you need to go out for 'marketing' again?"

  I shot him a sideways glance. "In about two days, back out with Alpha," I replied. I hadn’t told him why yet. I wasn’t sure I could explain it without sounding... well, a little crazy.

  "Why not earlier?" Ellis piped in, his gaze flicking between the two of us. The curiosity in his voice was clear, but I could see he was trying to keep the conversation light.

  "Because of our client," I said, shaking my head slightly. "They’re coming to inspect a mix of 100 drones from different models, and Graves wanted me here. She said she wanted to do my job as facility boss/lead scientist before I’m out again. She needs to take over again once I’m gone."

  I could feel both of their gazes land on me at that. I could sense their skepticism in the air.

  I looked at Alpha again, moving between the groups. His actions were becoming more familiar, less mechanical—almost like the other models, even though I knew better. I was still trying to wrap my head around the fact that they were starting to think for themselves.

  "Sometimes I wonder if we’re doing the right thing," I murmured, almost to myself. I hadn’t meant to voice that, but it slipped out all the same.

  Ellis turned toward me, raising an eyebrow. "You worked on that?" he asked, his tone curious.

  "The Immortal Program," I muttered, the words feeling heavy in my mouth. "I built half the internal muscle structures for the early frames." I paused, letting the memories flood back—the long nights spent in the lab, the bitter frustration when things didn’t work. "But we scrapped the whole thing once they realized the neural feedback system was too complex to stabilize. Seventy percent of the minds they tried to transfer never even worked, and the few that did..." I trailed off, thinking about those failed experiments. "The copies weren’t even alive. They just weren’t. We had to pay a hefty sum to some of the families."

  James raised a brow, clearly interested but not fully understanding. "You’re saying these drones are worse?"

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  I nodded, feeling a knot twist in my stomach. "Yeah, the Immortal Program was supposed to be real humans controlling the bodies to ‘live forever.’ But that never happened. Once they found out that the crystal for the minds was better for AI than a simple chip..." I let the sentence hang there, watching them both. "The whole thing was a mess. And these drones—well, they’re something else entirely."

  Ellis scoffed, his voice tinged with sarcasm. "And the AI itself? A revolution, right? I’m happy if the AI doesn’t go full Skynet and terminate us all with the drones we’re building."

  James laughed. "How would the AI even build more drones?" he asked, shaking his head. "40% of the assembly is handmade. The other 40% are just pre-made frames. The rest is the AI core or a brainstem grown organically in a tank. No assembly lines, no mass production. Even if it went rogue, it’d still need someone to help assemble them. And, trust me, you’d need more than just a few neurosurgeons for that."

  Ellis shot a sideways glance at James. "So, no Skynet-level crisis for mechanics, at least," he said with a wry grin. "But what about the new batch of recruits? How are they handling it?"

  James sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Same as any other newcomer. They get all excited until the first time they open up a Delta model. Then it’s like you can see the life drain from them. They ask if the black stuff in the chest is oil. When I told them it’s our synthetic solution for nutrient distribution to the organic components, they almost lost their breakfast. One Tau model almost bled out from it because he sprinted off without fixing it first."

  Ellis grimaced, clearly unsettled by the idea. "That sounds... awful."

  James shrugged, unfazed. "It’s always the same. They think they’re just working with machines, high-end robots. Then the first time a Delta opens up and they see the brain inside, half of them can’t even handle it." He gave a short laugh. "Tomorrow, they’re going to learn about the Ronin model. After that, they’ll get the big leagues—a Xenon."

  Ellis grimaced again, clearly not fond of the idea. "I think most people don’t, and will never, want to see a brain up close. And if they do, they won’t want to do it for the rest of their life."

  We all fell silent for a moment, the weight of the conversation settling on us. I could feel the tightness in my chest again—the nagging feeling that something wasn’t quite right.

  Something with Alpha.

  I tried to push it aside. I really did. But the thought wouldn’t leave me.

  There was something off about him, something that wasn’t quite fixed. He wasn’t the same as the others. And I was still worried that something would go wrong. Like last time.

  But as if on cue, Ellis turned toward me with a reassuring smile. "Don’t worry, Marcus," he said, his voice trying to sound lighter. "We checked. Graves said everything’s fine. Alpha’s fixed. No more issues."

  "Yeah," James chimed in, patting me on the back. "If Graves says it’s okay, it’s okay."

  I appreciated the reassurance, but something in me still wouldn’t settle. "But why did she say Alpha’s ‘confused’?" I asked, my voice just a little too sharp. "She didn’t elaborate, and that’s the part that worries me. If everything’s fine, why would she say that?"

  James and Ellis exchanged a quick look, and then Ellis shrugged. "Maybe she just meant he’s adjusting. He’s different, Marcus. We’ve all seen it. But everything’s fine. Trust me."

  I wanted to believe that. I really did.

  But I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was about to happen. Something big.

  The conversation drifted off after that, but the unease still hung over me like a thick fog. James and Ellis went back to discussing the logistics of the new recruits, but my mind was elsewhere. I kept looking at Alpha, wondering if I had missed something. Was he truly fixed? Or was there something deeper I hadn’t caught yet?

  I couldn’t let go of the feeling that the storm was coming.