Chapter 44

The Hollow Pocket.

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“What are you saying?” I asked, voice low.

“Extraction is going to be surgical as hell,” Nico replied. “One wrong vibration and it all goes down. And I don’t know how much time they’ve got in there, ventilation’s nonexistent, and if there’s a gas leak you can’t detect from the outside…”

“Shit.” Matteo exhaled heavily. “We’re racing a clock.”

I ran a hand down my face, forcing myself to think, to strategize. “Do you have a drone visual?”

“Sending it in now,” Nico said. “But the thermal’s gonna be more reliable until it breaks through the top layers. I’ll guide you remotely, but this is going to take precision and backup. I’ve got teams rerouting from the west, demo specialists and a structural engineer en route, but it’s going to take at least an hour.”