Time Remaining: 32 Days, 01 Hour. (Status: Sector 4 Stabilized. Monitoring Phase.) Location: The Observation Deck - Sector 4 Periphery.
The Observation Deck was a blister of thick, riveted glass suspended three thousand feet below the surface. It hung in the darkness of the shaft like a diving bell in a deep ocean.
To the left lay Sector 4. Through the glass, the massive intake pipes looked dead. They were stripped of their venting steam, their warning lights were dark, and the frantic vibration that usually blurred their outlines was gone. But they weren't dead. They were running. The Harmonic Dampener—that ugly coil of copper and scavenged rubber—was visible clamped to the main artery. It swayed gently, a rhythmic, hypnotic rocking motion that absorbed the tremors of the earth before they could reach the steel. Below, on the gantries, workers moved with the fluid, easy gait of men who weren't fighting a headache.
