Chapter 12 - The Hidden ConduitInstead of running toward the main elevator banks, Lily crawled deeper into the maintenance sector, squeezing through an open service hatch that led into the old pneumatic tube network—a legacy transit system built during the Cold War that connected various subterranean nodes across the city.
She shined her small flashlight down the narrow, metal-lined tunnel. Dust motes danced in the beam. It was tight, dark, and claustrophobic, but it was the only way off this floor without triggering the active security lasers.
Dragging her backpack and holding her bear, she wriggled forward on her elbows and knees. Every scrape against the corrugated metal felt loud, amplified by the hollow acoustics of the tube.
Think, Lily, think, she scolded herself. Sterling has the master drive. If he activates the tectonic amplifier sub-routine from an external terminal, the Prometheus Engine's primary cooling pumps will invert their polarity.
She paused inside the junction box, her eyes widening in sudden realization.
He’s not waiting for a board meeting. He's going to trigger the overload during tonight's live global energy broadcast!
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Ethan Cross was scheduled to broadcast a worldwide demonstration of the Prometheus Engine at midnight—less than two hours away. If Sterling initiated the sequence, the entire engine core would detonate, leveling the CrossTech tower and framing Ethan for an unprecedented industrial catastrophe.
Lily didn't hesitate. She scrambled faster through the conduit, her small hands tearing skin against a jagged rivet, ignoring the pain as she pushed toward the fiftieth floor.
