The Marlin was a quiet boat. The crew looked at us like we were ghosts. Bad luck. They’d lost friends back in the mountain. We hadn’t lost anything new. Dr. Aris did the cut in the sick bay. It hurt. A deep, digging pain in my hip. I didn’t yell. Kenji watched from the door. Face like stone.
Done. Aris put the sample in a little box that hummed. “Need twelve hours. To grow cells. To tune the machine.”
“No,” I said, pulling my pants up. The bandage was already red. “Voss is moving. The Phoenix is waking up. We wait, she’s gone.”
“What then?” Kenji asked.
I looked at Elena. She leaned in the doorway, arms crossed. She knew. “We sink the place. For good. Not a lock. We drop the mountain on it. The heat vents… blow them right, the whole thing cracks. Bury it all.”
“How?” Caiman’s voice fr
