Chapter 335: Younger Ground
The walk to Zone Eleven took the morning.
The ground rose a little as they went east, then flattened into a wide shallow rise that did not look like anything. Thin soil. Old grass. The kind of empty land a survey team would cross without stopping if they did not already know what lay under it.
Kai knew. He had read the early notes on Zone Eleven more than once. Forty-five meters down, a trace of gene energy — spread thin and wide, with no point to it. Younger than Zone Ten. Younger than anything he had touched on the whole eastern survey.
The notes had said one thing clearly: not yet.
He had come to see for himself whether that was still true.
He went down at midday with a full pool.
Forty-five meters was less than Zone Ten, but the stone here was softer and more broken. Not collapsed like Zone Nine — just old and loose, the kind of ground that did not hold a clean read. He went through it slow and listened for the gene energy.
