Mercer walked away from Chamber Nine without looking back.
The hallway outside the observation deck felt narrower than usual, lights too bright against his eyes after the dim, failing glow of the core. His footsteps landed steady on the polished concrete, the sound of them cleaner than anything that had been happening inside the ruined chamber.
Behind him, alarms still howled.
He ignored them.
Other people could count broken bolts and cracked housings. His focus stayed on the only number that mattered.
One.
One subject who had stood upright while his most advanced machine tore itself apart trying to quantify her.
He flexed his fingers once, slow, feeling faint tremors in the tendons. Annoyance, not fear. The body told the truth long after the mind pretended otherwise.
Doctor Kearns kept pace at his shoulder, tablet hugged to her chest like a shield. "Director, we need to cordon off that entire wing. If the coolant lines—"
