Group two reached the junction from the north.
Dean came through the stairwell door and held it for Carlyle and Niall and stopped in the doorframe with the even careful eyes reading the corridor in both directions and finding group one already there — Tierney and Katherine and Fenix at the near end, moving toward them with the specific urgency of people who had information that needed sharing and a clock that was already running.
"Dean," Katherine said.
"Katherine," Dean said. One beat. The entire conversation.
Carlyle and Niall came through behind Dean and found each other in the way the group always found each other after a separation — the quick visual check, the confirmation of intact and present, the particular relief of a group that had been split and was coming back together.
Niall looked at Katherine.
"The creature rooms," he said.
"I know," Katherine said.
"How do you know?"
"Because we found the tubes," Katherine said. "Seven of them. The generals being built."
Niall absorbed this.
"The creatures in the rooms are the raw materials," he said. Working it through in the way he worked through things — methodically, each piece placed deliberately. "She's building seven generals out of creature stock and blood."
"Grace's group found the blood collection," Katherine said. "Hundreds of vials. Years of accumulation."
"This is larger than we thought," Carlyle said. Not with alarm — with the specific sober assessment of someone who had been gathering information and had arrived at the sum of it and was reporting the sum accurately.
"Yes," Katherine said. "Which is why we need everyone together before we go to the third floor."
From the east end of the corridor a door opened.
Thomas.
With Courtney and Jasper behind him.
Thomas looked at the assembled eight of them and did the count with his eyes the way he always did and arrived at the number and moved into the junction.
"Three more groups," he said.
"Coming," Katherine said. "I can feel them."
Thomas looked at the corridor.
"The patrol," he said.
"Fenix has them at two minutes out," Katherine said.
Thomas looked at Fenix.
Fenix looked at the ceiling.
"Ninety seconds now," Fenix said.
"Then we make this fast," Thomas said.