Chapter Three: Level Zero Is Not a Floor

The four pushed the fractured wheel into the elevator. Security officers broke into the bay as the doors shut, bullets ringing against the outer panel. There were no floor controls inside, only an old voice terminal. Ying pressed her palm to it. “Biological key confirmed,” the terminal said. “Ying, inheritor of Origin Project.” The elevator descended—ten meters, thirty, a hundred. The city’s vibration faded, replaced by a continuous hum from deep in the rock, as though an enormous machine still breathed below. “How long were you in that cabinet?” Zhou asked. “Three days,” Ying said. “Or eighteen years.” “Who told you to wait?” “Lin Li.” Everyone looked at Lin.