Lily managed to pop the roof hatch. They climbed into the ventilation shafts, crawling through a labyrinth of freezing pipes.
"It's like a refrigerator in here," Adrien chattered, his breath misting in the air.
"Server cooling," Lily whispered. "We're close to the brain."
They dropped into a room filled with towering racks of humming processors, glowing with an eerie, rhythmic blue light. It was beautiful and terrifying—a cathedral of data built on human suffering.
"This is where they keep the 'Ghosts,'" Lily said, her voice uncharacteristically soft. She touched a glass panel. Inside, pulses of light mimicked a human neural network. "They've already mapped thousands of minds."
Adrien set up his station. "If I can't delete them, I'll corrupt them. Give me a minute."
Lily sat next to him, sharing a thermal blanket she'd pulled from her pack. For a moment, amidst the hum of the world's most dangerous computer, she leaned her head on his shoulder. "You're doing great, Goggles. Just keep typing."