The server ventilation shaft was a horizontal tunnel of jagged galvanized steel, vibrating like the throat of an engine.
I didn’t look down at the twenty-foot drop into the darkness behind us. I kept my palms pressed flat against the freezing metal ribs of the duct, my breathing shallow as I crawled directly behind Ethan. The air inside the shaft was thick with the chemical residue of the fire suppression blast, tasting of salt and scorched aluminum.
"The shaft matches the structural blueprint of the West Coast node," Ethan’s voice drifted back to me, hollow and metallic against the steel walls. "It bypasses the executive floors entirely and drops directly into the primary cooling column of the sub-basement. If Julian has already initiated the incendiary script, the column will be drawin
