The first Aegis representative stopped at the guards because the pole across the path left him no room to pretend he had not seen the boundary.
He wore a facility coat over armored clothing. A second agent carried a document case, and two people behind them held an equipment trolley whose load stayed covered. Rook was not among the faces Eli could see. That absence made the trolley harder to stop watching, though a covered load was not evidence of what lay beneath it.
The council’s boundary representative came with Ilyan and two defenders. Eli remained behind their line. Sera stood where she could see the approach and the approved return. Nobody had asked her team to take command of the public route.
“We need passage to the inner chambers,” the agent said.
“Under whose agreement?” Ilyan asked.
“Emergency authority. You’ve seen the warning.”
THE PRISON IS FAILING. PAYMENT REQUIRED.
Eli did not need to open the interface to remember it. Around him, several surface hunters looked toward their own displays. The cavern residents watched that reaction with expressions the agent seemed to mistake for uncertainty.
