No one spoke right away. The weight of Qingran's words seemed to hang in the narrow space, mixing with the low hum of the ventilation.
Lingquan finally broke the silence, pulling up a map projection between them. "We could put motion sensors on the main routes—"
Qingran shook her head. "The main routes aren't the problem. It's the hidden connectors, the ones that don't even look like access points unless you know where to check. That's how it got into that storage room without setting off alarms."
Yu Song frowned. "You're saying it already knows the layout?"
"I'm saying it's been here long enough to figure it out.." she replied. "And some of those passages aren't in the standard maps. I've seen them, narrow maintenance runs, old service shafts. That's where we focus."
Fang Yuxi's voice was quieter. "If they're that small, can we even block them off?"
