Purge fluid climbed over Vell's ankles while the severed cage lines spat chemicals across the dead row. The shadow-cat avoided the spreading wash by stepping onto a pipe bracket behind him.
Cain had sealed the drainage shutter before starting the pumps, turning the cold room into a tank. The locked passage offered higher ground, but three rifles waited beyond its bent door.
"Service trench has company," Yenna said through the radio as metal struck her truck, "six guards, two shock nets, plus nobody worth dying for."
"Leave the trench," Vell replied, removing the three relay cores from his pack, "circle to the southern discharge gate."
"Ninety seconds," she said, snapping a chain around something heavy outside, "then I leave whether you found a door or married the drain."
Her refusal gave him a real limit instead of reassurance he had not requested. Vell set the salvaged cores beside the runoff control, then traced the purge line through the wall with Analyze.
