Page 122 - DivineSparkRising II-TheMirrorofSilenceFinal

Divine Spark Rising
At Cais do Sodré, customs officers scanned
passports without speaking; their screens glowed a
soft white that looked too clean. Zhara had insisted
on staying in Tangier to keep the Wireless Voices
tuned. Hafid pressed extra cash into Henry’s hand
at the gangway, laughing in that way that made
courage look easy. Then they were in the street
again, ordinary pedestrians walking into an
extraordinary day.
“Under the Tejo,” Carolina said, slipping on her
pack. “We go straight in.”
Sera looked toward the river. “She’s waiting,”
she murmured. “The way a mirror waits.”
2. The Hollow Station
They cut through the Mercado and down the
stone steps to a maintenance corridor that didn’t
appear on municipal maps. Jinji’s coordinates had
marked a seam behind a shuttered newsstand.
Henry ran his fingers along concrete until they
found a rectangle that felt like a bruise. Carolina
jimmied the panel with a flat steel pick and an
engineer’s patience. The wall yielded, sighing with
relief.
Inside: a ramp, a smell of damp cable and old
salt. They descended into pale blue light that came
from no bulb they could name. Sera hummed once,
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