The room answered Director Mercer before anyone else did.
"Lock the bay."
At his words, the siren changed its pitch, dropping from a screech to a lower, grinding tone that vibrated in Sera's teeth. Red strips along the ceiling snapped from pulsing to solid. Somewhere in the walls, heavy bolts slammed home, each impact a dull, final thud.
Every door in the corridor outside her cell sealed at once.
She felt it through the floor—the small jump as locking bars drove into place, the faint shift in pressure as vents above the hallway narrowed. Even the airflow around her seemed to have changed direction.
What had been a gentle pull outward became a contained loop, cycling the same dry, scrubbed air through a narrower system.
The soldiers reacted a half-second after the building.
