CHAPTER 33
The air inside Site E tasted like rust and power failure.
I followed Glory’s badge key deeper into the restricted hallway, past warning signs that buzzed with half-lit menace. SECURITY LEVEL 5 – AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY. A biometric scanner blinked at me from the left wall. I held my breath as I pressed my thumb to it.
It flashed green.
That was almost more terrifying than red.
I shouldn't have access.
Unless I’d had it before.
Unless some part of me—some earlier version—had already been here.
The steel door let out a hiss as it unsealed. I stepped through.
The hall behind it sloped downward, the walls shifting from sterile white to bare concrete. Pipes crisscrossed above like tangled arteries. Somewhere in the distance, something dripped—steady, rhythmic, too human.
