The shuttle sped through the underground tunnel, the hum of its engine echoing through the narrow metal passage. Erica gripped the armrests of her seat, the nerve blocker at the back of her neck making her mind unusually clear—as if a hazy veil had been suddenly lifted.

Elijah Cohen—Experiment No. 11, the quantum physicist who had "died" in a laboratory explosion five years earlier—flew rapidly at the control panel. His prosthetic eye flickered a faint blue light in the darkness.

"They'll set up scanners at all the exits," he said, his voice hoarse and dry, as if he hadn't spoken normally in a while. "But we're not going the conventional route."