THE HEIRESS THEY BURRIED
"Or built later. Whoever's system this really is, it clearly didn't stop working the day Jonathan buried it."
Then the mechanical voice spoke once more, calm and absolute, carrying no trace of the warmth Jonathan's recordings had always held.
"Proceed to Level Seven."
The elevator doors remained open, patient, waiting.
Nobody moved.
Elara looked around at the group, at Aurora, at Lucien, at Isaac and Vivienne and Gabriel and Alexander, at Edmund standing quietly at the edge of them all, no longer an enemy, not yet fully an ally, simply another person caught inside a countdown none of them had asked for.