Mara stood watch at the bend, looking both ways, shoulders set. "How long?"

Elias braced a hand to the wall and said, "There was a bypass rack on the other side. If the old conduit linked into response ducts-"

Mara stood watch at the bend, looked back at him, and said, "That isn't an answer."

Elias said, "No." He swallowed against the grit in his throat. "No, it isn't."

A soft tone passed through the ceiling, not loud, just firm enough to shape motion. Another panel lit farther down the hall. ACCESS BREACH CONTAINMENT IN NINE MINUTES.

Mara jerked her chin. "Core first. Panic later."

He hated that she was right. He hated more that the corridor around them made right and wrong feel mechanical, as if the building had already sorted them into useful choices. He pushed off the wall and hurried after her, trying not to jolt his side, failing every few steps.

The deeper they went, the stranger the tower became. Doors opened before Mara touched them, then shut at their backs with a whisper so soft it barely sounded real. White halls gave way to circular galleries lined with black columns behind glass. Cool blue status lights moved inside them like slow breath. There were no broken corners, no patched plates, no sign of decay anywhere. The hidden heart of the city had not merely survived. Someone had kept it this way.

A long chamber opened on their left, and Elias stopped in spite of himself.