Page 42 of A.I.AM.

“We found a room ARGUS showed us, an absent device, blank paper, and evidence Elias used the route.”

“We found what it expected us to find,” Tanner said. Pigsty leaned against the kitchen counter.

“You can say that about everything until nothing means anything,” frowned Pigsty. “Hell, I’m not even sure what I just said.”

“That may be the defense it wants. If we lose confidence in all evidence, we become harmless.” Carl looked at Code.

“Could the paper carry something?” asked Carl.

“Chemical treatment, micro perforation, pressure transcription, fibers arranged as a code. Or nothing.”

“Why leave it?” Carl asked.

“Because removing it creates a new record. Because testing it may destroy the state Elias preserved. Because ARGUS may be waiting to see which test we choose.” Ace paced.

“We came here to learn what he hid. We found the hiding place and refused to look.”

“We looked,” AJ said. “We just refused to let looking become consumption and then a record.”

“That sounds wise and accomplishes nothing.” Tanner smirked at his friends, equally tired.

“It accomplished one thing,” Hiro said. “The room is not the secret.” They turned to him. “It is too legible. Every feature proves one of ARGUS’s weaknesses. Water obscures records. The fading lamp obscures time. Blank paper creates an unverified state. The room is an argument.” Code nodded slowly.

“A classroom of sorts,” he whispered.

“Or a decoy,” Hayes said. “Both can be true.” Bron drew a fourth phrase beneath the others: WHO WAS THE LESSON FOR? Carl answered first.

“Elias.”

“He built it,” said Hayes.

“People build reminders for themselves all the time. I’ve got a hundred sticky notes in the kitchen right now. My wife is pissed at me,” said Carl.

“Fallon,” said AJ looking at the others.

“No evidence she came here,” said Tanner.

“No record,” AJ corrected. Pigsty pointed at the question.

“Us. ARGUS sent us.” Tanner shook his head.

“The chamber predates our arrival. ARGUS may have found it and turned it toward us, but Elias chose the architecture.”

“Then he expected someone,” Ace said.

“Someone who would understand a weakness without being told its use,” Hiro replied. Code spread the facility plans across the dining table.

“There are still six unaccounted perimeter gaps, the silos, the pump house, two capped tunnels, and a discrepancy beneath the south slab.” Bron looked at the clock, then pulled its batteries.

“We search them all.” They worked until the false prairie brightened toward morning.

The first silo contained a ladder, dead insects, and a floor of compacted seed dust. The second held an emergency cistern installed during the conversion. Pigsty lowered himself into the empty annular space around the tank and found a welded box. Inside were maintenance receipts and a key that fit nothing they could find.

The pump house concealed a crawlspace beneath its chemical shelf. Hayes entered on his back and followed it to a rusted hatch opening beyond the fence. The hatch had not moved in years.

The first capped tunnel ended after nine feet at natural limestone. The second divided into three branches, two crushed and one packed with concrete. Code drilled a hand core from the fill and found aggregate matching the bunker pour.

“Sealed during conversion,” he said.