The hatch sat in the middle of the old terminal floor.
Nobody spoke for several seconds.
The wind outside rattled loose metal somewhere above them, but inside the building everything felt still.
Elena stared at the lock.
Years of rust covered most of the steel surface, yet the locking mechanism looked different.
Cleaner.
Maintained.
Someone had taken care of it.
Mateo crouched beside it.
"This wasn't abandoned."
"No," Alexander said.
"It wasn't."
Julian knelt beside the hatch and brushed away more dirt.
A keyhole appeared beneath the dust.
Then another.
Two separate locks.
Old ones.
Heavy ones.
The kind built to last.
Mateo looked up.
"Can we open it?"
Alexander examined the mechanism.
"Maybe."
Julian pointed toward the hinges.
"They've been greased recently."
That immediately caught everyone's attention.
"Recently?" Elena asked.
Julian nodded.
"Within a few years at most."
Silence followed.
Someone had been down there.
Not decades ago.
