The elevator rumbled upward.
Gu Ning leaned listlessly against the elevator's transparent wall. Kloer was talking nonstop in her ear, but she barely heard a word.
The mechanical voice of her in-ear translator sounded harsh and grating.
When the elevator reached the top, she followed Kloer out. A cold wind howled across the high wall, whipping past her and clearing her head a little.
"You haven't been up on the wall in a while, have you? It's no fun staying in the tunnels all day." Kloer looked back at Gu Ning, patting her shoulder and joking with her. "The wind's a bit strong today. Careful you don't get blown away."
Given Alex's attitude toward the little Mixed Breed, and with the fortifications project now in its final handover phase, there was no essential work for Gu Ning to do. She was so small that her presence made no difference, so Kloer just treated it as if she were tagging along for fun.
