Read Chapter 10: Chapter 10

The detention center at Châtelet occupied the lower levels of the old train station, a maze of cells and interrogation rooms that had once been maintenance tunnels and storage areas. Léon was thrown into a cell barely large enough to lie down in, with no light, no bed, no toilet. The door clanged shut behind him, and he was left alone in the darkness.

He sat against the wall, his knees drawn up to his chest, and tried to calm his breathing. The darkness was absolute, oppressive, pressing in on him from all sides. He had never been afraid of the dark—he had spent too much time in the conduits for that—but this was different. This was the darkness of a place where light never came.

He thought about his quarters, his tools, the familiar hum of the ventilation system. He thought about the people he had met through the resistance: Marcus, Amelie, Richard. Were they still free? Had they been arrested? Did they know what had happened to him?

He didn't know. He might never know. The Conseil had the power to make him disappear, to erase him from the records, to make it as if he had never existed. His quarters would be assigned to someone else. His coworkers would forget him. His name would fade from memory.

But the truth—the truth he had discovered—would remain. The unauthorized devices had been found. The full power of the geothermal plants was now flowing to the lower levels. The Conseil had been exposed, even if only partially. The resistance had won a victory, even if he would never see its fruits.

He closed his eyes and let the darkness wash over him.

The grid is a liar, Madame Baptiste had said.

But now, at least, the lie had been revealed.