“You really remember all this?”
“I walked it at three in the morning while you slept.”
“I had kids.”
“So did I.”
Jason almost smiled.
Then:
“I’m sorry.”
“Later.”
They reached B5.
Door thirty-two remained sealed.
Through the narrow reinforced panel, Logan saw the two workers.
The woman looked frightened.
Not panicked yet.
That mattered.
Logan pressed one hand against the glass.
She looked at him.
He pointed toward the radio.
Jason keyed communication.
“We’re at the door.”
The woman nodded.
Logan said:
“We’re going to use the mechanical release.”
“Step back from the threshold.”
She moved.
Her coworker followed.
Logan opened the auxiliary panel.
Corrosion.
Not catastrophic.
Enough to resist.
Jason looked.
“Deferred too long.”
“Yes.”
They worked.
First attempt.
Nothing.
Second.
Movement.
Not release.
Jason grunted.
“Again.”
Third.
The mechanism gave.
The door moved upward.
Slowly.
The two workers came through.
The woman stopped beside Logan.
“You’re Barrett.”
“Yes.”
“Did you build this?”
“Parts.”
She looked toward the opening.
“Thank you.”
Logan shook his head.
“Thank the person who reported the air warning.”
“That was me.”
“Then thank yourself.”
They moved everyone toward verified safe access.
At 12:51, all facility personnel were accounted for.
No injuries.
No one trapped.
Environmental teams isolated B5.
B7 fault contained.
The immediate crisis ended.
The harder crisis began.
Charlotte ordered the control room restricted.
Federal observers were moved to a secure briefing area.
She promised a full report.
Dominic objected.
“This will damage the contract.”
Charlotte looked at him.
“Three employees almost died.”
“Nobody died.”
The room went silent.
Dominic realized too late what he had said.
Charlotte stared.
“Leave.”
He frowned.
“I represent the board.”
“Leave the control room.”
He did.
Connor tried following.
A security officer blocked the doorway.
Connor looked offended.
“Move.”
The officer said:
“Ms. Ellison requested you remain.”
Connor turned.
“You’re detaining me?”
“No.”
“You’re being asked to remain available during incident review.”
Connor laughed.
“By who?”
Charlotte stepped forward.
“By me.”
The audit lasted through the night.
Jason printed records.
Original architecture history.
User modifications.
Deferred maintenance acknowledgments.
Safety report routing.
Badge logs.
Manifest edits.
Demonstration configuration.
Abigail Crane returned to the conference room after being called from home.
She looked at the evidence.
Then at Charlotte.
“I need to say something.”
Nobody interrupted.
“Connor gave me the termination package.”
“We reviewed access violations.”
“He said the technical issues had been cleared.”
“Did you verify?”
“No.”
“Why?”
Abigail swallowed.