The maintenance tunnel was narrower than Maya had expected, forcing them to proceed in single file. James took the lead with Echo, his heightened hearing providing better navigational awareness in the confined space than Maya's visual advantages.
"Two security panels ahead," James whispered, his fingers trailing lightly along the wall. "One emitting a standard RFID field, the other... something odd. High-frequency hum that shouldn't be there."
Maya checked her tablet, its screen displaying the sonic mapping of her surroundings. "The second panel has subsonic triggers embedded. Likely connected to an alarm system."
She tapped James's shoulder twice—their signal for caution—before stepping around him to examine the panels. The modified tablet in her hands translated sound waves into visua
