The copy finished. He shoved the hardened core into his satchel. Then he moved on to release. Manual lock one sat under a panel in the dais. He had to climb onto the platform edge, lie half on his side, and reach into the cavity with his wrapped hand because the housing had been built for maintenance arms, not bodies. The latch burned cold against his skin. He twisted until the joint clicked and white static crawled over the cage.

Manual lock two sat across the ring beside a heat sink stack. He crossed with shallow breaths and bent to open it. The chamber pitched sideways. He caught himself on the rail before he dropped to one knee. Smoke scraped up from his lungs in a hard cough.

Mara was beside him in two steps. "Enough. I can-"

"No. You don't know the sequence." He wiped his mouth with the back of his wrist and tasted ash. "Sink four, then field reset. If you reverse them it hard-locks."

She stared at him for one bare beat, then went where he pointed and waited. "Talk."

Together they worked the rest of the release through shouted numbers and clipped confirmations. Heat rolled off the sink bank. White indicators shifted to amber. A crack raced through one of the cage braces and sealed itself with a skin of clear gel. Somewhere above them, deeper in the tower, a new tone began: slower, heavier, no longer trying to soothe.

"That's not good," Mara said.

Elias said, "No."