The Hacker got Caleb into Sector Nine through a service shaft she had not used since she was twenty-nine.
He was alone for it. Elara had refused on the grounds that her face on a Sector Nine camera was not survivable. Iris had refused because the captain had refused. He went in with a clearance badge clipped to his coat that the Hacker had backdated to a contractor who did not exist.
Sector Nine was colder than the rest of the city.
The containment wing had its own atmosphere. Lower pressure, lower temperature, dryer air. The corridor lights were a thin, even white. The walls were poured concrete six feet thick, sheathed in lead, sheathed again in a copper mesh that grounded every electromagnetic signature the containment subjects produced.
The sample's cell was at the end of the corridor.
The Hacker had cleared the duty officer for the next forty minutes.
Caleb walked alone.
The cell had a single observation window.
