The pipes along the wall were cold. Thick, wrapped in black foam, humming. Borealis was right behind me, breathing like he’d been running.
"Here," he said, voice tight. He pointed to a hatch where the pipes went into the rock. "Power should be through there."
Behind us, the fight sounds kept going. Metal hitting metal. Caiman yelling. Kenji’s quick, sharp breaths over the comms. They were holding. For now.
I yanked the hatch open. A tight tunnel, dark, hot. We crawled in.
The hum got louder. The air smelled like a storm. We came out in a small concrete room. Machines on the walls, lights blinking. In the middle, a thick column of cables and wires went up and down. The heart.
"Here," Borealis said. He was already pulling the putty-like C4 from his pack. His hands were steady. He starte
