"No," Mara said. She had a strip of skin open along one forearm where mesh had cut her, blood already slicking her wrist. Her voice stayed level. "Containment."

The masked team advanced to the fallen rack and stopped. One spoke into a throat mic. No panic. Procedure. They were not here to drag prey into dark. They were here to seal a breach, preserve a secret, and erase whoever had touched the wrong truth.

Mara hit SEND on the relay panel before the power died. The progress bar vanished. She looked at Elias. "That one went."

Elias looked up at Mara. "How much?"

"Enough to start trouble." She rose into a crouch. "Move. Machine. Now."

They ran the long way back through side aisles and maintenance cuts as shutters dropped behind them. Elias lost his footing twice. The second time he struck the wall with his bad side and had to stand there breathing through his teeth, vision graying at the edges, while Mara grabbed his jacket, hauled his arm across her shoulders, and half dragged him onward. By the time they climbed into the chamber trunk again, he was climbing more on her momentum than his own, and the world had narrowed to white lights, hot lungs, and the weight of the satchel against his spine.