Page 161 of Broken Sentinel

Her silver eyes unfocus slightly as she extends her perception through the structure. "Multiple signals. Lower detention level holds most prisoners." A pause. "Vex is there. Alive but weakened."

Relief floods through me. Alive. Not well, perhaps, but alive.

"And Trent?" I press, dreading the answer.

Her expression turns troubled. "Upper level. Central processing chamber. His pattern is... changing." She looks at me directly. "They're accelerating modifications. Not like yours or mine. Something else."

Project Duality. Unity's twisted version of controlled evolution.

"Two objectives," Jo decides. "Team One extracts general prisoners including the Splinter. Team Two retrieves the Sentinel."

I nod, already knowing where I need to be. "I'll take Team Two. Lily with me—her perception will help locate Trent precisely."

"I'll lead Team One," Sara offers, surprising me. "My adaptive capabilities should help with security systems."

Jo considers briefly, then nods. "Agreed. Communication through resonance connection only. Rendezvous at extraction point in forty minutes."

As we prepare to separate, Sara catches my arm. "If the Sentinel has been significantly modified..." She leaves the sentence unfinished, but her meaning is clear.

"I'll handle it," I say with more confidence than I feel.

We part ways at the next junction, the resonance connection stretching but holding as our teams move in oppositedirections. Lily leads me upward through service passages, avoiding main corridors where Unity personnel would be concentrated.

"Guard patterns have changed," she whispers as we reach the level below our target. "More modified operators than intelligence indicated."

"Can we bypass?"

She nods. "Ventilation shaft. Narrow but passable."

The shaft is indeed narrow—barely wide enough for shoulders, requiring us to wriggle through like maintenance snakes. The irony of escaping Unity through ventilation again isn't lost on me. Some patterns repeat, it seems.

We emerge into a utility closet one level below the processing chamber. Through the ceiling, I can hear the distinctive hum of Unity medical equipment—the sound that haunted my captivity at the research facility.

"Trent is directly above us," Lily confirms, her silver eyes tracking something invisible to normal sight. "Two guards at the chamber entrance. Modified."

I check my weapons—non-lethal stunners designed to work even against enhanced physiology. "Approach through main corridor or find alternate route?"

Lily's head tilts slightly as she scans. "Maintenance access behind west wall panel. Bypasses main entrance."

"Perfect."

The access panel is well-concealed, exactly as Lily described. It slides open silently under her touch, revealing a narrow vertical shaft with service rungs. We climb carefully, emerging into what must be a supply closet connected to the processing chamber.

Through the thin wall, I can hear voices—clinical, detached, discussing their subject as if he were a specimen rather than a person.

"Accelerated integration continues at optimal rate," onereports. "Subject shows remarkable compatibility with modified sequences."

"Expected, given his Sentinel enhancements," another responds. "Though the neural integration remains unstable. Cognitive restructuring at seventy percent."

My blood runs cold. Cognitive restructuring. They're not just modifying his body—they're altering his damn mind.

"Prepare for final phase," the first voice instructs. "Director Mercer wants the subject ready for transfer by 0600."

Footsteps recede, a door hisses closed. The chamber falls silent except for the steady beep of monitoring equipment.

"Two personnel departed," Lily whispers. "One remains with the subject."

I check the time—0350. Less than ten minutes until the guard rotation Jo mentioned during our planning session. If we time this correctly, we can extract Trent during the brief window between shifts.

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