step carefully to avoid stumbling and dropping the cat. Once she was closer to the building, Stella saw that the doors were actually made of steel, and it looked like all the windows were blocked off with metal, too.
Miranda reached out and pressed one of the bricks, which turned out to be a façade; it flipped up out of the way, revealing a touch screen of some kind.
The Queen pressed her hand flat against the screen for several seconds before there was a faint beep.
A small camera lens shot forward from the wall until it was close to Miranda’s face, and Stella saw a blue line of light travel over her eyes. Another beep, followed by a female computer voice requesting verbal authorization.
“Star-two,” Miranda said.
“Identity accepted. Access granted.”
There was a deep clanging sound, and a moment later the steel doors slid back like something from Star Trek , revealing a pair of equally enormous carved wood doors behind them. Seconds later the windows began to follow suit, making surprisingly little noise other than the soft flap-flap-flap of the metal shutters retracting.
Above Stella’s head, two electric torches blazed to life, banishing the eerie darkness.
Miranda took a deep breath. “Welcome to the Haven of the South,” she said. “Follow me.”
As they crossed the threshold, the interior lights began to click on, and Stella finally got to see exactly what she was dealing with here: The doors opened into a grand vestibule with a staircase that rivaled any Hollywood plantation set. The room was cavernous, their steps echoing as they crossed the marble floor. Even Pywacket didn’t seem to know how to react; the cat was quieter than he’d ever been in his life.
They took a long hallway and several turns. Stella was good and lost before a minute had passed, but Miranda’s stride was purposeful, her expression fixed on her goal.
She led Stella to another steel door and held her wrist up to the scanner on the wall beside it; the weird bracelet thing she wore was some kind of key, and the light on the scanner changed from red to green, allowing her access.
“You can leave your things here for now,” Miranda told her.
Stella saw why: The door led directly to a staircase, and there wasn’t much room to spare. Getting her bag and Py down there would have been awkward to say the least. At the bottom of the stairs was yet another door.
The Witch wasn’t sure what she expected to find on the other side, but it wasn’t what she got. They walked into a windowless, freezing cold room full of computers—cabinets of servers, monitors, an entire store’s worth of laptops and other equipment meticulously organized on shelves.
Miranda went to a console where a red button was locked inside a shield, just like in a nuclear submarine movie. She held her wrist-thing to it, unlocking the shield, and flipped it up to expose the button.
She shot Stella a grin. “Watch this.”
She hit the button with her palm.
Around them, servers and CPUs leapt to life, whirring and beeping and clicking; Stella felt a faint vibration beginning all around her, the entire building seeming to wake up. A monitor nearby lit up and Stella watched, fascinated, as it showed the system booting up, running through script after script that switched on other monitors, other subsystems.
SOLAR POWER SYSTEM: ONLINE.
EXTERNAL LIGHTING SYSTEM: ONLINE.
COM SYSTEM: ONLINE.
SENSOR GRID: ONLINE.
VEHICLES: ONLINE.
A window popped up asking for a password. Miranda typed in what looked like more than two dozen characters. Finally, another window appeared, saying, CONFIRM ELITE RECALL?
Miranda said aloud, “Confirm, Star-two, Queen Miranda Grey-Solomon.”
RECALL MESSAGE?
She smiled softly, and when she spoke, her voice was clear and firm and held the barest touch of triumph: “Attention, all Elite and Haven personnel. Recall Code Omega-Nine, Star-two. Report to the Haven immediately. I repeat: Recall Code Omega-Nine, Star-two.”
RECALL
Miranda reached out and pressed one of the bricks, which turned out to be a façade; it flipped up out of the way, revealing a touch screen of some kind.
The Queen pressed her hand flat against the screen for several seconds before there was a faint beep.
A small camera lens shot forward from the wall until it was close to Miranda’s face, and Stella saw a blue line of light travel over her eyes. Another beep, followed by a female computer voice requesting verbal authorization.
“Star-two,” Miranda said.
“Identity accepted. Access granted.”
There was a deep clanging sound, and a moment later the steel doors slid back like something from Star Trek , revealing a pair of equally enormous carved wood doors behind them. Seconds later the windows began to follow suit, making surprisingly little noise other than the soft flap-flap-flap of the metal shutters retracting.
Above Stella’s head, two electric torches blazed to life, banishing the eerie darkness.
Miranda took a deep breath. “Welcome to the Haven of the South,” she said. “Follow me.”
As they crossed the threshold, the interior lights began to click on, and Stella finally got to see exactly what she was dealing with here: The doors opened into a grand vestibule with a staircase that rivaled any Hollywood plantation set. The room was cavernous, their steps echoing as they crossed the marble floor. Even Pywacket didn’t seem to know how to react; the cat was quieter than he’d ever been in his life.
They took a long hallway and several turns. Stella was good and lost before a minute had passed, but Miranda’s stride was purposeful, her expression fixed on her goal.
She led Stella to another steel door and held her wrist up to the scanner on the wall beside it; the weird bracelet thing she wore was some kind of key, and the light on the scanner changed from red to green, allowing her access.
“You can leave your things here for now,” Miranda told her.
Stella saw why: The door led directly to a staircase, and there wasn’t much room to spare. Getting her bag and Py down there would have been awkward to say the least. At the bottom of the stairs was yet another door.
The Witch wasn’t sure what she expected to find on the other side, but it wasn’t what she got. They walked into a windowless, freezing cold room full of computers—cabinets of servers, monitors, an entire store’s worth of laptops and other equipment meticulously organized on shelves.
Miranda went to a console where a red button was locked inside a shield, just like in a nuclear submarine movie. She held her wrist-thing to it, unlocking the shield, and flipped it up to expose the button.
She shot Stella a grin. “Watch this.”
She hit the button with her palm.
Around them, servers and CPUs leapt to life, whirring and beeping and clicking; Stella felt a faint vibration beginning all around her, the entire building seeming to wake up. A monitor nearby lit up and Stella watched, fascinated, as it showed the system booting up, running through script after script that switched on other monitors, other subsystems.
SOLAR POWER SYSTEM: ONLINE.
EXTERNAL LIGHTING SYSTEM: ONLINE.
COM SYSTEM: ONLINE.
SENSOR GRID: ONLINE.
VEHICLES: ONLINE.
A window popped up asking for a password. Miranda typed in what looked like more than two dozen characters. Finally, another window appeared, saying, CONFIRM ELITE RECALL?
Miranda said aloud, “Confirm, Star-two, Queen Miranda Grey-Solomon.”
RECALL MESSAGE?
She smiled softly, and when she spoke, her voice was clear and firm and held the barest touch of triumph: “Attention, all Elite and Haven personnel. Recall Code Omega-Nine, Star-two. Report to the Haven immediately. I repeat: Recall Code Omega-Nine, Star-two.”
RECALL
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