The prison wasn't waking up; it was having a seizure.
The explosion in the boiler room had triggered a cascade failure. The lights in the corridors flickered between emergency red and total darkness. Steam hissed from ruptured vents, obscuring the vision of the guards running past.
"Go!" Julian shouted to Isolde. "The cell blocks are on the lower levels. We'll draw the heavy fire upstairs."
Isolde didn't waste words. She grabbed a ring of keys from the unconscious guard, gave Julian a sharp nod, and vanished into the smoke, heading down.
"Okay," Skid said, coughing into her sleeve. "Warden's office is in the Spire. Top level. We have to go up twenty floors. In a building full of people who want to shoot us."
"We're not walking up the stairs," Julian said. He pointed to the central elevator shaft. The doors were blown slightly open, revealing the dark void. "The elevator is dead, but the cables are still there."
"I hate climbing," Skid groaned.
Level 10 - General Population
They climbed the greasy cables of the elevator shaft, bypassing the lower floors where the guards were massing.
As they passed Level 10, the sound changed. It wasn't alarms anymore. It was screaming.
Through the gaps in the elevator doors, Julian saw flashes of the riot. Isolde had done her job. The magnetic locks on the cells had failed when the power grid fluctuated.
Thousands of prisoners—men and women starved, beaten, and frozen—were pouring out of their cages. They didn't have weapons, but they had rage. They swarmed the guards like white blood cells attacking a virus.
"It's a massacre," Lyra whispered, hanging from the cable next to Julian.
"It's a distraction," Julian said grimly. "Keep climbing. If we don't stop Vakgar, he'll vent the atmosphere and kill them all."
Level 20 - The Spire
They reached the top floor. Julian forced the elevator doors open with his crystal hand.
They stepped out into a different world.
Down below, it was chaos and noise. Here, it was silent. The hallway was pristine white, lined with polished marble floors that reflected the red emergency lights. The air was frigid—colder than the rest of the prison.
"Welcome," a voice echoed from hidden speakers.
It wasn't a recorded voice. It was wet, raspy, and devoid of emotion.
"Mr. Vane. You have caused quite a bit of property damage. The heating bill alone will be astronomical."
"Warden Vakgar," Julian said to the empty hall.
"And Captain Blitz tells me you are quite the mechanic," the voice continued. "He is here with me now. We are... discussing the value of loyalty."
A scream cut through the speaker. A high, terrified shriek that sounded distinctly like Blitz.
"Come on," Julian broke into a run.
They sprinted down the hallway. At the end stood a massive double door made of frosted glass and steel.
Julian didn't knock. He didn't pick the lock.
He hit the door with a Resonance Blast.
BOOM.
The glass shattered inward.
They stormed into the room, weapons raised.
Julian stopped.
It wasn't an office. It was a Freezer.
The room was vast, dominated by a panoramic window overlooking the frozen ocean and the aurora. But there was no furniture. No desk. No chairs.
The walls were lined with cooling pipes that dripped liquid nitrogen. The floor was a grate over a pit of churning ice-slush. The temperature in here was easily thirty degrees below zero.
In the center of the room, suspended by chains from the ceiling, was Captain Blitz.
He was stripped to his waist. His skin was turning blue. His cybernetic eye flickered weakly. He was shivering so violently his teeth were audibly cracking.
And standing in front of him was Warden Vakgar.
Vakgar was a nightmare of biology and engineering. He was tall, gaunt, and wore no shirt—only a pair of black trousers. His skin was translucent white, revealing veins that pumped a glowing blue coolant instead of blood.
He had surgically removed his own sweat glands. His nose and ears were replaced with flat metal vents. He didn't feel the cold; he was the cold.
Vakgar turned to face them. He held a metal rod that was frosted over with white rime.
"You interrupted the negotiation," Vakgar said softly. Breath misted from his vents.
"Let him go," Julian said, his own breath freezing instantly.
"Why?" Vakgar tilted his head. "He betrayed you. He sold you for a warm bed and a bag of gold. I am simply... testing his temperature tolerance. He seems to run hot. I prefer things static."
Vakgar touched the frozen rod to Blitz's chest.
HISSS.
Blitz screamed again. The extreme cold burned worse than fire.
"Help... me..." Blitz wheezed, his good eye rolling back.
"He's bait," Lyra warned, aiming her pistol at Vakgar's head. "He wants you to step onto the grate."
"Smart girl," Vakgar smiled. His teeth were made of clear quartz.
He pressed a button on his belt.
CLANK.
The floor grating beneath Julian, Lyra, and Skid snapped open.
They fell.
They didn't fall far—only ten feet—but they landed in the Slush Pit.
It was a tank filled with a mixture of crushed ice, salt, and chemical coolant. It was a thick, semi-solid sludge that acted like quicksand.
The cold hit them instantly. It soaked through their boots, their pants, their coats. It was a shock to the system so intense it felt like paralysis.
"Argh!" Skid screamed as the slush reached her waist. "I can't move! It's seizing my joints!"
"Thermal shock," Vakgar peered down from the edge of the pit, looking like a curious child examining bugs in a jar. "The mixture draws heat from the body instantly. Your muscles will cramp in thirty seconds. Your hearts will stop in two minutes."
He turned back to Blitz.
"Now, Captain. Where were we? Ah, yes. The mask."
Vakgar picked up the silver Void Walker mask from a pedestal. He looked at it.
"The Silence demands silence," Vakgar whispered. "And you make so much noise."
He didn't pay Blitz. He didn't release him.
Vakgar placed the frozen rod against Blitz's neck.
"Sleep."
Blitz stiffened. His eye went dark. He slumped in his chains, frozen solid in seconds.
The traitor was dead. Not by Julian's hand, but by the greed he served.
Vakgar turned back to the pit. Julian was struggling to keep his head above the freezing sludge. His crystal hand was glowing frantically, trying to generate heat, but the sludge was sucking it away too fast.
"And now, the Conductor," Vakgar mused. "Do you know why the Titan sleeps, boy? Because cold is order. Heat is chaos. Life is messy. Ice is perfect."
He reached for a lever on the wall.
"Let's lower the temperature a few more degrees. Let's see if your soul freezes before your blood."
Julian looked at Lyra. Her lips were turning blue. Skid was already losing consciousness.
I can't fight the cold with heat, Julian realized. He's a heat-sink. He absorbs it.
So don't give him heat.
Give him the one thing ice can't handle.
Julian stopped struggling. He looked at the cooling pipes lining the walls of the pit. They were vibrating.
Resonance.
"Hey, Vakgar!" Julian chattered, his teeth clicking.
The Warden stopped, hand on the lever.
"Do you know what happens to ice when you hit the resonant frequency of water?" Julian asked.
Vakgar frowned. "What?"
"It shatters."
Julian didn't aim at Vakgar. He aimed at the sludge he was drowning in.
He slammed his crystal hand into the freezing mix.
VIBRATE.
He sent a high-frequency sonic pulse into the semi-solid liquid.