Chapter Five: Seventy-Two Blind Spots

Xu inserted her credential and sent a timing correction through the network. The nodes shifted one frame in sequence. Every shadow in the tower fell in the same direction, revealing a freight elevator absent from the plans. Its doors bore a seal dated seventeen years earlier. Drones broke the windows. Zhou lunged for the console as Lin grabbed Cen's phone. The elevator opened without a car. White steps descended into depth. Cen's face flashed beneath the cracked glass. “Don't walk the white,” she said. “Walk the shadows.”