Dmitri led the team into the backdoor and found Echo One-Two. Rex's eyes were locked toward the metal cabinet that covered the wall.
"RFT-3," Matilda said, staring at the cabinet. "A fallback site hidden behind a utility passage. Are the SAS this barbaric?"
Her senses slipped past the physical blockage and into the broken section of the wall.
From the cabinet to the concrete, beyond the darkness that thinned in her perception.
It may not have shown everything, but it was enough to confirm that the passage didn't end nearby.
"Not a short escape route," Matilda said, moving closer to the cabinet. "This was prepared long before the collapse."
With one hand, she pushed the cabinet aside—neither grunting nor breaking a sweat.
The wall wasn't cut. It had been demolished with force.
A cold smell rolled out from within—a mix of earth, dust, and something faintly medicinal.
It was narrow and crude, with claw marks dragging across the earth wall.
Dust blew inward, then back out.
Barbaric indeed, Matilda smirked. "Engineer."
The Engineer stepped forward, equipped a headlamp, then placed his case on the floor.
"Structural scan first. Then the air. Then check for any chemical traces."
"Understood. Beginning scan."
The Engineer opened the case. Compact instruments unfolded from within.
Dmitri wanted to say that Echo One-Two had already gone inside and returned alive.
Saying it now would only make Matilda's caution look unnecessary, and he had no intention of earning a glare over something harmless.
Echo One-Two made a quick pass through it, he thought while watching the Engineer step first into the passage. The two of them might have missed something important. Let it be.
"Structure is ugly, but surprisingly stable," the Engineer said. "Whoever reinforced this knew how not to get buried."
He checked the second instrument.
"Air is a bit stale, but it should be breathable. No heavy toxin concentration, so there's that."
The third device clicked twice, making the Engineer pause.
"Small trace. Chemical residue."
"Is it harmful?" Matilda narrowed her eyes.
"It's weak and won't harm you that much. They're just... present."
Matilda's eyes narrowed. "Is it a HELIX compound?"
"Can't confirm without the appropriate equipment."
Dmitri investigated the dark passage. It was pitch black after a couple of meters.
"Suspicious enough."
"Close enough, indeed," the Engineer agreed. He flicked the headlamp switch on before moving deeper into the passage, one careful step at a time.
Matilda raised one hand.
"I'll take point. Bar, cover the Engineer. You're behind me."
"Understood, Fairy."
Bar, a.k.a. Kross, nodded. He gently pulled the Engineer aside and brandished his weapon.
Matilda glanced at Dmitri, Rex, and Echo One-Two.
"Echo One and One-Two, behind us. The rest, follow up."
No one argued and quickly went into formation.
Without the pressure of diving head-first into the unknown, the Engineer confidently marched ahead.
The passage was filled with occasional reports from his instruments' scans, making the scene strangely livelier than pure silence.
"No active signal," the Engineer added. "No wire, no sensor pulse, no powered device within immediate range."
As expected, Matilda continued. Her eyes wandered around the darkness while her mind perceived the path several meters ahead of her.
It continued farther than they expected, but the journey hadn't been smooth.
The floor rose and dipped without a pattern. Some walls were scraped raw, others packed down until they became almost smooth.
Steel plates appeared only where the earth was about to collapse against itself.
Whoever made it cared about one thing only: for this passage to stay open long enough until it was used.
"Minor structural weakness," the Engineer reported. "That left wall. Don't touch it."
"Chemical trace?" Matilda asked.
"Present and weak. Same as before."
Rex moved beside Dmitri with his nose low, occasionally stopping to sniff the ground.
He's not growling, Dmitri watched carefully. That's good.
After several minutes, they reached the split Echo One-Two had mentioned to Dmitri before.
The left passage had collapsed. Concrete, soil, and twisted metal blocked the way completely.
The right passage continued into darkness. Matilda stepped closer to the collapse.
"What do you think?"
"Could be deliberate," Dmitri replied shortly. "Or not."
Rocks and earth poured in from above. Small holes could be seen that led to the dark outside.
Matilda closed her eyes and willed her senses forward.
The cloud of darkness thinned.
The collapsed passage became layers in her mind—stone, packed soil, and bedrock.
It looked like a natural cave-in until something in her perception broke the pattern.
Her brows tightened.
The left path had not collapsed naturally. The broken stone sat too densely near the mouth, packed inward by force.
They closed it from this side... Matilda frowned. To strike it with both force and control—these people are skilled.
"So it was indeed deliberate?" Dmitri asked.
"Yes," she said. "But whether this path is the correct, or the other..."
Everyone glanced at each other.
"If they wanted to stop any pursuit, the collapse makes sense. If they wanted to guide the pursuit, the collapse also makes sense."
Dmitri understood immediately.
One was a blocked road. The other, a very open and obvious one.
Making a choice of just one route would be too clean.
Whatever it was, everyone waited as Matilda studied the collapsed branch.
The Engineer checked the rubble from a distance, then shook his head.
"We can dig through, but not quietly. Not quickly either."
Matilda patted the earth, then turned around.
"Echo One and Bar shall follow me. We'll take the right."
The Engineer looked at her. "Even if it is bait?"
"Especially if it is bait," Dmitri stepped closer while glancing at her. "Shall I call my entire squad over?"
"No need," Matilda's expression did not change. "The two of you and Rex is enough."
She swept her eyes over the open path, letting the darkness crept toward her.
"If someone prepared this route, they prepared it for a reason. They're superhumans. Any normal logic won't work to them. Whether it is the correct answer or the trap, we will only know by moving in both directions."
Dmitri nodded once. It's better to do both, indeed.
Taking one path would force a blind spot on the other.
If they all dig as well, it would waste time and lose their momentum.
"Saint, Vesper."
She addressed the two other DASF units.
"Stay with the Engineer and plow through that collapse."
Saint, the taller of the two, rolled his shoulders once and stepped toward the collapse without complaint.
Vesper crouched beside the Engineer, tapping the rubble twice with her knuckles as if listening to the stone answer back.
Neither of them asked why they were being left behind, but they knew why. Saint was a brute, specializing in the Somatic axis.
Vesper was the opposite, barely a Somatic, but had great perception abilities. Though hers was slightly lower than the squad leader.
As they focused on the task at hand, they forgot to ask the Engineer first.
"Good Sir, Ma'am," the Engineer scratched his head, interrupting their focus.
The two quickly turned their eyes to him, frightening the poor young lad.
"Let's take this one rubble at a time, shall we? I think being buried alive doesn't sound too good..."