𝐙𝐀𝐘𝐍𝐄
"Fuck," Cyrus hissed, his dark eyes widening as a low, mechanical hum began to thrum beneath our feet. "Zayne, what did you do?"
"It was a trap," I ground out, my jaw clenching as I forced myself to read the code lines shifting beneath the countdown. "The password wasn't just a label; it was a trigger for a dead-man's switch. Darren didn't just lock his secrets away. He rigged them to burn if anyone from our world tried to look inside."
"Can you bypass it?" Kaleb demanded, his voice dropping into a dangerous growl as the hum grew into a steady, deafening vibration that rattled the loose stones around us.
"Not from the outside," I replied, my fingers flying across the terminal as I tried to force a hard override, only for the screen to flash red with every attempt. "The encryption is tied to a localized thermite charge or worse. If that clock hits zero, whatever history, whatever answers we have left to give Aurora, will be vaporized into nothingness."
