The lift dropped without warning.
Not a smooth descent, not a controlled glide. Just a hard pull downward that forced Arlen to brace and made the lights stutter like the system itself hadn't decided whether this thing was still supposed to exist. The doors sealed fully, the outside world gone, replaced by a narrow vertical shaft rushing past them too fast to track.
Arlen swore under her breath and glanced at the panel. "This wasn't in the briefing."
Xavier leaned back against the wall, unfazed, eyes fixed on the shifting numbers climbing down instead of up. "Bull never briefed anyone. He liked watching people figure it out mid-fall."
The lift slowed suddenly, then stopped with a heavy jolt that made the floor vibrate through their boots. For a second, nothing happened. No door opened. No sound came. Just the low buzzing of power running through something massive around them.
Then, the walls changed.
