The secondary facility felt like a tomb of cold calculations and discarded biological dreams. Zeven moved through the digital archive, the air around him thick with the faint hum of power. Overhead, the ventilation system rattled, a mechanical heartbeat that filled the silence with a sense of artificial life. He navigated past rows of massive server banks, their surfaces slick with condensation. The room was bathed in a sterile blue light, the glow pulsating from the core processors like a trapped, dying star. It was a suffocating brilliance that made the shadows cling to the corners of his vision.
He reached a terminal at the center of the room. Its screen was dark, a black mirror waiting to reveal secrets that had been kept for a century. With a steady hand, Zeven accessed the system. T
