The maintenance door would not open.
Kellan had expected the gravel piled against its lower edge to be the problem. The crew had cleared most of that before the team arrived. When he pulled the handle, the door moved an inch and stopped against something inside.
Halden checked the plan. “The corridor should be clear.”
“Something’s against it,” Kellan said.
Orrin pulled from the outside beside Kellan. The door scraped, then stopped again. A thin line of dust fell from the frame.
“Don’t force it,” Kellan said. “We could jam it shut.”
Davin stood behind them with the two fighters and the restraint net. “The main entrance is open.”
“And if the creature comes between us and the main entrance?” Sera asked.
“We deal with it.”
Kellan pointed to the plan. “This is the second route. If it doesn’t open, we need to know before we’re carrying someone toward it.”
Halden radioed a worker inside the facility. The worker reached the other side of the corridor and found a metal cabinet that had tipped against the door. It contained replacement filters and was heavier than it looked. With two workers inside and Kellan pulling from outside, they eased it away without dropping the contents.
The door opened another six inches, then caught on the gravel still packed beneath the threshold. Orrin fetched a shovel. He and Eli scraped the remaining stones away while Sera watched the service passage. Her talent registered the machinery’s steady current and a stronger pulse near the annex. The pulse had not moved since they arrived, as far as she could tell.
“Try it,” she said.
Kellan pulled. The door opened fully and struck a stop fixed to the exterior wall. Halden checked the hinges, then marked the route on the plan. Eli walked through the opening with the folded barrier to confirm it would fit. It did, but only when turned sideways.
“If we’re carrying a patient?” Tessa asked.
They tested with an empty stretcher. Orrin and Valea carried it through while Tessa watched the clearance. The handles caught on the frame until they lowered one end and angled the board. Tessa timed the maneuver, then asked them to repeat it without rushing.
“Why again?” Orrin asked.
“Because you know where it catches now. I want you to learn the movement before someone is on it.”
The second attempt was smoother. Valea marked the narrow side of the frame with a strip of tape. Orrin carried the empty board back through once more, deliberately taking the opposite handle, and learned that the turn felt different when he could not see the lower corner. Halden ordered the cabinet moved permanently after the inspection and asked the workers to keep the exit clear.
Only then did the group approach the annex entrance. Davin’s fighters went first with lamps. Eli followed Kellan and Sera; Tessa stayed near the doorway with Halden and the medical kit. Nessa remained outside the active area, helping the facility coordinate information while her arm healed.
The gate shimmered at the end of a service passage, a pale vertical seam beside a bank of pipes. Beyond it, the annex continued into a space that looked partly built and partly grown: concrete floor, mineral ribs along the walls, and a low ceiling threaded with cables. The filtration controls remained on the building side of the seam, close enough that a fight in the passage could reach them. The creature had already emerged from the gate and was hiding on the building side, among the controls.
Sera stopped at the threshold. “The stronger signal is ahead and to the right. It’s not moving.”
“Creature?” Davin asked.
“Possible. The machinery is masking part of it.”
She placed three removable markers along the entrance route. Kellan checked the floor and the supports holding a pipe above shoulder height. Eli used Weak-Point Sight briefly, looking for strain in the brackets. A faint line appeared at a joint where a newer brace met an older pipe support.
“There’s stress here,” he said.
Kellan examined the bracket. “The bolts are sound, but the brace carries weight from two directions. A hard sideways blow could shift the joint.”
“How hard?” Valea asked.
“I can’t give you a number from looking. Hard enough that I don’t want a staff strike or a struggling animal against it.”
Orrin lowered his weapon. The passage was narrower than the meeting-room plan had made it look. He turned sideways to pass the control cabinet, keeping the staff close to his body.
A small scrape came from beyond the pipes. Everyone stopped. Sera raised a hand.
“The current moved. Right side, near the controls.”
A shape appeared between two housings: low to the floor, with a ridged back and a tail that ended in a blunt, flattened tip. It sniffed the air, then tucked itself beneath the control cabinet. Its body was no larger than a medium dog, but the cabinet’s wires hung within reach of its teeth.
“There,” Davin whispered.
Valea lifted the net. Eli saw her angle toward the cabinet and the weighted edge swing close to the pipe. He held up his hand.
“Pause.”
Davin looked at him sharply. “It’s right there.”
“And the net can pull the wiring down.”
“We can throw past it.”
“Into the pipe?” Kellan asked.
Valea lowered the net. “The ceiling’s too low for the throw we practiced.”
Davin took one step forward. The creature darted farther beneath the cabinet, its tail striking a valve wheel. The wheel turned a fraction. Halden checked a gauge and swore.
“It’s closed the bypass a little. Pressure’s still within range.”
“Can you turn it back?” Tessa asked.
“Not while it’s under there. I’d put my hand next to it.”
The creature made a clicking sound. Orrin raised his staff. The tip brushed a pipe and produced a hollow ring. The animal went still.
“Sorry,” he whispered.
Sera crouched beside the nearest marker. “It reacted to the sound.”
“Or to the movement,” Davin said.
“Both are possible. We can test from farther away.”
Halden produced a small plastic container from his bag and tapped it against the floor in the open passage. The creature lifted its head but did not emerge. He tapped again, softer. Its tail moved; the current Sera felt shifted toward the sound.
“Don’t keep doing it,” Valea said. “If it runs, we have no barrier up.”
As they withdrew, Orrin’s boot caught on a cable cover. He stumbled forward and struck the floor with one hand. The creature sprang from beneath the cabinet. For an instant Eli thought it would run straight at the group. Instead it darted up the side of the housing and clung there, claws scraping metal.
“Don’t move,” Davin said.
Orrin froze on one knee. The animal’s head turned toward him. Its eyes were pale and round, with a dark line through each. The flattened tail tapped the cabinet twice.
Sera could feel the current shifting with its movements now. The stronger pulse matched the animal’s position, though the machinery still obscured the space behind it. She whispered the location to Valea, who kept the net lowered.
Halden edged toward the bypass valve. The creature turned its head at once. He stopped.
“It’s watching movement,” he said.
“Or defending that spot,” Sera replied.
Orrin lifted his hand slowly from the floor. A smear of blood crossed his palm where the cable cover had cut it. Tessa signaled him toward the entrance. He crawled backward until he could stand without bringing the staff near the pipes.
The animal dropped from the housing and disappeared beneath it again. The valve wheel rattled, but the gauge did not change. Halden kept watching the needle while Tessa cleaned Orrin’s hand. The cut was shallow. He insisted he could continue, then allowed her to wrap it when she pointed out that a wet grip on the staff could make the next mistake worse.
“I thought it would charge,” he said.
“So did I,” Eli replied.
“Do you know what it is?”
“No.”
Orrin flexed his bandaged hand. The fabric tightened around his palm when he closed his fingers, but the bleeding had stopped. “Then I won’t call it a low-rated animal again until somebody tells me what that rating means.”
Davin heard him but did not reprimand him. He watched the control cabinet for another ten seconds before signaling the retreat to the entrance.
They backed out to the entrance. Kellan unfolded the smaller panel and placed it where the passage widened, leaving the maintenance route clear. Eli held it while Kellan checked the feet. The panel could redirect an animal but would not stop a heavy impact on its own.
“Can you anchor it?” Kellan asked Eli quietly.
“For a few seconds, if I’m ready. We need a mechanical brace too.”
They set a wedge behind one foot and tied the other to a fixed rail. Eli practiced taking position without activating the talent. He had learned during training that an Anchor hold ended abruptly when his concentration failed; the force did not disappear. The wedge had to take the movement after he released.
Davin watched them. “We can kill it before it gets that far.”
“Where?” Kellan asked.
Davin pointed to the space beside the cabinet.
Halden stepped into the doorway. “That line feeds the eastern district. The valve is already partly turned. If you hit the joint or the animal damages it, I may have to shut the line.”
“The creature is small.”
“The water doesn’t care how small it is.”
Kellan took a loose length of pipe and placed it on two supports outside the annex. He pushed gently at one end. The far support shifted; the movement traveled through the pipe and dislodged a small block at the other end.
“That’s a demonstration, not the exact system,” he said. “A strike here can load a joint you aren’t aiming at.”
Davin watched the block fall. Orrin picked it up and replaced it, then repeated the push himself. The block moved again.
Tessa showed Davin the streets served by the line. “The clinic, the pharmacy and a residential block are on this branch. A shutdown may be necessary, but it shouldn’t be the price of the first attack if we have another option.”
Davin glanced at the time. The second team interested in the bounty had not arrived, but delay could affect who received the reward. He asked Halden how long the bypass could remain partly closed. Halden checked the gauge and said pressure was stable for now, though he wanted to restore the valve as soon as the animal was clear.
“All right,” Davin said. “We try a lure. Five minutes to prepare. If it moves toward the valve again, I reassess.”
Sera marked the creature’s position on the plan with a question mark for its exact location. She assigned Orrin to watch the main entrance and Valea to guard the maintenance route. Neither would block the other’s line of retreat. Nessa relayed the plan to the facility workers and asked them to stay clear of the annex unless Halden called them.
Tessa prepared the medical kit at the junction between the two exits. She asked the laboratory technician to remain outside the active area and collect the planned water samples. The technician agreed and took a sealed container to the sampling point.
Eli stood behind the panel. The creature was somewhere beneath the cabinet, listening to sounds in the passage. He could feel Anchor waiting at the edge of his attention. A quick hold might pin the animal long enough for Davin to strike. It might also drive the tail into the valve before the hold took effect, or leave Eli struggling to maintain control while the creature thrashed against the pipes.
He did not activate it. He checked the wedge and the rope instead.
Sera returned from the threshold. “The current is still near the controls. There’s another weak signal behind it, or the machinery is splitting what I feel. I can’t separate them.”
Davin looked at the passage. “Then we keep a line to both exits.”
Kellan nodded. “And no one crosses the panel until the route is clear.”
Halden held the plastic container ready. The small tapping sound had drawn the creature’s attention once. Whether it would draw the animal away from the machinery remained to be seen. Eli placed one hand on the barrier and waited for Davin’s signal.