The operator stared at the dark display after Andrew ended the call.
Behind him, someone asked what the Prince had said.
"Burn the site."
The older technician beside the records cabinets stopped packing.
"With us inside?"
The operator looked toward the indicator for the lower workroom. Three members of the night staff were still there, trying to recover equipment they had been told could not be abandoned.
He reached for the internal channel, but before anyone answered, the disposal formation lit beneath the cabinets.
Someone at the upper control station had obeyed.
Heat struck his face when the first cabinet opened. Pale light ran across the stored records, stripping the marks from the plates before the material itself began to glow.
The technician dropped the case he was filling.
"Get the others out."
The operator tried the lower door control. A warning appeared over the indicator. The room had been locked while the disposal sequence isolated the site's equipment.
