The Altar's Glow
With the outside danger stopped for 72 hours, Julian and Eliza turned all their attention back to the glowing stone altar. The Ancient Code on the screen was complicated, but the Memory Swap had given them the perfect, blended skill set to read it. Eliza (in Julian's body) gave the structural logic and the history of the Titan family. Julian (in Eliza's body) gave the knowledge of ancient, forgotten spy codes.
The Code confirmed that the solution was not one thing, but three separate pieces, called the Anchors. The Anchors were physical objects that grounded the Bloodline Debt to the real world. Only by putting all three Anchors together could they perform the final Ritual and break the Link.
The First Clue
They had already secured the First Anchor—the Micro-Drive itself, which they realized was the key to reading the rest. The Code then provided the first clue for the Second Anchor. It wasn't a map; it was a cryptic riddle written in a mix of old Latin and the Titan's ancient language.
Eliza read the translation of the riddle, her deep voice loud in the chamber: "Where the sky's wealth is buried in the Earth's heart, and the river of steel flows only in shadow, there rests the second piece of the Mandate's chain."
Julian immediately understood the meaning, thanks to Eliza's operative training. "It's the Syndicate Tunnels," he announced. "The 'river of steel' is the old mag-lev line that runs beneath the whole country, built by Julian's grandfather. The 'sky's wealth buried in the Earth's heart' refers to the illegal mining operations used to pay for the first Titan companies."
Accessing the Deep Maps
Finding the general location was easy, but locating the specific spot inside hundreds of miles of dark tunnels was the real challenge. They needed the secret, high-resolution maps of the Syndicate's original construction plans—maps Julian had spent a lifetime erasing and destroying.
Eliza, however, suddenly felt a surge of technical expertise. "Julian erased the official blueprints, but he wouldn't destroy the original field schematic drafts," she muttered, typing rapidly on the Micro-Drive interface. She accessed a hidden server located deep inside the Ancestral Code's structure.
The server contained the exact, unmodified maps, complete with the location of every secret maintenance shaft, unused bunker, and hidden storage room in the entire tunnel network. It was a goldmine of information, unlocked only by their combined, fused memory.
The CEO's Stupid Prep
The maps pointed to a small, abandoned maintenance entry point deep in the forest, far from the nearest town. They would need specialized gear to survive the tunnels: climbing equipment, atmospheric masks, and thermal blankets.
Eliza (as Julian) reached into the CEO's trunk. She didn't find sophisticated spy gear. She found Julian's version of emergency equipment: a leather-bound, ridiculously expensive survival whiskey kit, a dozen fresh white shirts, and a pair of emergency Italian leather shoes.
Julian (as Eliza) stared in disbelief. "You spent your life building this empire, and your emergency kit is a bottle of scotch and dress shoes? My operative kit weighs less than this bottle!"
Eliza sighed, frustrated by her husband's ridiculous priorities. "This is what happens when you let the wealth control you," she grumbled, reaching under the rear seat. There, hidden in a false compartment only an operative would notice, was Eliza's actual, fully stocked field gear bag.
The Awkward Suit-Up
They had to get out of their corporate clothes and into the tactical suits. Since the Link Pain demanded closeness, they were forced to change in the cramped space behind the massive sports car, using the low glow of the dome light.
The act of helping each other into the complex field gear was a study in frustrating, intimate awkwardness. Eliza struggled with the small, intricate clasps of Julian's utility vest on her own body, her large hands too clumsy for the delicate work. Julian struggled to fit Eliza's small, agile body into the heavy-duty climbing harness, his unfamiliar hands feeling large and intrusive on her slender frame.
"Turn around!" Julian suddenly commanded, his face red and hot. "I can't possibly adjust this chest harness without..." He stopped talking, unable to finish the sentence. Eliza, equally flustered, turned her massive back to him. The whole process was a painful, minute-by-minute reminder that they were forced to be intimate strangers.
Julian's New Fear
As they finished gearing up, Julian (in Eliza's body) paused. He had been a ruthless CEO, accustomed to sending others into danger. Now, he was the one facing the dark, poisonous air of the Syndicate tunnels.
Eliza, seeing his hesitation, felt a flash of Julian's pure, unfiltered fear through the Link. It wasn't fear of pain; it was the terror of being unimportant—the fear of failing in a role that wasn't built for his corporate skills.
Eliza placed a massive, comforting hand on Julian's small shoulder. "You are the eyes and the mind for this part," she said, her voice surprisingly gentle. "You know the Syndicate's internal workings better than I do. We move as one. You navigate; I cover." It was the closest she had ever come to admitting she needed his skills, even if they were housed in her fragile body.
The Descent into Shadow
They located the maintenance hatch—a rusted, old door hidden beneath a tangle of thick vines. Eliza used the brute strength of Julian's body to wrench the stiff door open, the metal screaming a loud protest.
They lowered themselves into the deep, vertical shaft. Eliza went first, securing the line with Julian's powerful grip. Julian followed, his small body adapting instantly to the practiced movements of an operative, relying on Eliza's muscle memory.
The air in the shaft was immediately heavy and cold. As they reached the bottom, they stepped onto the abandoned mag-lev tracks—the "river of steel." The tunnel was pitch black, silent, and suffocatingly vast. They turned on their headlamps, casting two small cones of light into the abyss. They were now deep inside the forgotten infrastructure of the Titan Empire.
The Weight of the Secret
As they moved through the silent tunnel, their headlamps illuminated the walls. The stone was carved with the same strange glyphs they had seen on the altar. They were walking through a monument to the Bloodline Debt—a physical representation of the massive, hidden price paid for Titan's wealth.
Julian looked at Eliza. "This is the true terror," he whispered, his voice echoing. "Not the swap, but the knowledge that our lives were decided by a contract written by our ancestors. We are just pawns in a very old, very expensive game."
Eliza squeezed his hand, a purely unconscious gesture of shared fate. "Then we don't just break the Link," she vowed. "We destroy the game. We destroy the Rule forever." They pressed on, following the hidden maintenance tunnels towards the location of the Second Anchor.