Water in Shaft 37

The door beyond the relay shaft opened onto a narrow stairwell, its railings stripped of paint and rough with old splinters. The lower they went, the hotter the air became, as if even the basement had been dragged under the sun. At the bottom was a circular machine room. Old switching cabinets lined the walls. Thick cables ran everywhere. In the center, several terminals still glowed with a cold blue light that made the room look like the inside of a deep well. Someone was already there. Not a group. Just one man. Harper Gray, the state emergency office liaison director. Lin had seen his name in memos, press packets, and drill rosters for years.