They reached the upper level — the cathedral’s substructure. The stained-glass light above glowed red through the dust, coloring the air like blood.

The old elevator hummed somewhere below; the Originals were following.

Vera grabbed Nicolas’s arm. “Then we destroy it all. Every record, every gene file.”

He shook his head. “There’s a core drive in the main chamber — too deep for an external blast. We’d have to overload the power system manually.”

She glared. “Then we do ...