The copied emergency key lay inside a clear evidence box on the command table. Its yellow access light blinked every eight seconds, calm and patient while people in the gym argued about whether Rook's promised evacuation was safer than another night under artillery range.
Nox listened from the doorway because the argument belonged to them. The exit right had been posted before the siege, and he would not make it disappear because an enemy had learned how to use hope as a route marker.
"The key opens behind the core and announces itself to the external command system when the door cycle begins," Vasa said, reading the device through the box.
"Either they know we found it, or they expect Joy to use it before we do," Kendra replied, checking the straps on her battered mantle.
