Jin Boyuan watched her silently from near the hangar entrance. The adrenaline that had sustained him through the flight was fading, leaving behind exhaustion and gnawing anxiety about what waited for them in New York. But Zhou Yuxi never stopped moving, never slowed down, operating on some reserve of strength that seemed inexhaustible. She was moving on pure instinct now, he realized. When stopping meant thinking and thinking meant feeling and feeling meant breaking.
Ah Yu completed a perimeter check of the hangar, walking the interior walls and examining the few windows that looked out onto the snowy darkness beyond. He returned to the group, breath still fogging despite the relative warmth inside.
"The area is secure," he reported. "No sensors triggered except the hangar's interior lights and the fuel system. No signs of tampering or unauthorized access. The facility appears to be exactly what Miss Zhou said it was, a private refueling station."
