Chapter 103: Everything We Have

The dispenser released a concentrated stream of pepper spray directly above Gao Mingrui’s head.

He ended up dropping the axe before the aerosol became visible on the camera. Then he raised both hands to his face and stumbled away from the sealed junction, coughing hard enough to fold forward at the waist.

Unlike what happened in the vestibule earlier, Jingwei hadn’t sealed the corridor or filled the entire space. He had selected the narrowest deployment zone, leaving the route back to the public mechanical floors open.

The others understood the difference immediately.

Two men abandoned their tools and ran toward the service stairs, while the facilities director pulled one of the maintenance workers away from the pepper spray.

Within seconds, Gao Mingrui was the only person who remained beneath the dispenser.

As soon as he crawled away from the junction, Jingwei ended the release.

The aerosol continued drifting through the overheated corridor, leaving Gao Mingrui on his hands and knees several meters from the axe. His eyes remained closed, and each attempt to breathe triggered another violent cough.

"He needs to move farther away from the contaminated section," Qinghe warned as he studied the camera. "If he stays there, the combination of the irritant and the heat could cause permanent respiratory damage."

No one in the corridor appeared willing to help him or even approach him.

The facilities director had stopped near the service stairs with one arm covering his face. He looked toward Gao but didn’t leave the cleaner air to help him.

The recorded warning began again. "Restricted area. Further attempts to damage protected systems will activate defensive measures."

Zeyu watched Gao Mingrui remain on the floor. "Can he even hear that?"

"He can hear it," Jingwei replied. "Whether he listens or not is his problem."

While the others watched the corridor, Shichen checked Jinhai’s independent systems.

The cooling units had accepted the full load without exceeding their projected power consumption, and the emergency seals around the severed connections were holding.

"The external power transfer and building-assisted cooling connection are gone," he reported. "The shelter can operate without them, but we won’t be able to restore either system remotely."

Hanchuan turned his attention away from Gao. "Does that prevent us from using Jinhai during the Flood?"

"No. The independent systems were designed to support the protected floors without any assistance from the tower."

"For how long?"

Shichen compared the current load against their stored fuel, battery banks and replacement components. "They’ll carry us through the Flood and the transition periods on either side, assuming we don’t suffer a major equipment failure."

That was all the answer Hanchuan needed. He nodded once before returning his attention to the corridor.

Gao Mingrui had managed to push himself upright against the wall.

When the facilities director finally approached him, Gao Mingrui shoved away the hand offered to him and began searching the floor for the abandoned axe.

"Stop," the facilities director demanded. "The connection is already gone."

"They have another one," Gao rasped.

"No, they don’t."

"There’s always another way inside."

The facilities director looked toward the camera before shaking his head. "Not one we can reach."

His knowledge of Jinhai Tower had led the survivors to the protected floors and through the mechanical corridors. That same knowledge had finally convinced him that they couldn’t breach the shelter with anything available inside the building.

Gao Mingrui refused to accept what the other man had already understood.

"There are more than 40 of us," Gao said as his hand continued searching the floor. "They can’t stop everyone."

"They don’t have to stop everyone," the facilities director replied. "They only have to stop the first person who reaches the door. After watching what happened to you, who do you think will volunteer to be second?"

The survivors gathered near the service stairs heard him. One by one, they began leaving the corridor.

Gao Mingrui called after them, offering money, positions in his companies and places for their families inside a shelter he didn’t own.

No one answered him. Whatever authority he had possessed in the world aboveground hadn’t survived two encounters with Jinhai’s defensive system.

The facilities director dragged the axe to the opposite side of the corridor before following the others through the service door. He didn’t help Gao Mingrui up to his feet.

"They may try another route after they regroup," Shichen said.

"Is there another route?" Hanchuan asked.

"Not one that reaches the protected section. They can still damage the tower’s ordinary systems, but all they’ll accomplish is making the public floors less survivable."

"They may do it anyway," Jingwei said. His voice remained as blunt as his expression. "They’ve already attacked the only functioning shelter because they thought damage would give them leverage."

Shichen couldn’t disagree. Desperate people didn’t become rational merely because rational decisions were more likely to keep them alive.

He reviewed every accessible component surrounding Jinhai’s protected floors. "I can isolate the shelter completely. We’ll stop receiving reports from the tower’s ordinary systems, but we’ll retain the internal cameras, environmental controls and security network."

"Will anyone outside the shelter be able to interfere with it?" Hanchuan asked.

"No."

"Then isolate it."

Shichen began severing the remaining connections between Jinhai’s shelter and the tower around it. Fire barriers closed across unused ventilation routes, electrical relays disconnected the public circuits and security shutters blocked the mechanical corridors beyond the protected walls.

The tower disappeared from the shelter network one system at a time.

Public cooling failed first, followed by the elevators, tenant systems and emergency lighting on the upper commercial floors. Jinhai’s protected section remained brightly illuminated on the internal cameras, surrounded by dark rooms no one could enter.

Yesterday, Shichen might have called that wasteful.

He had spent his career designing buildings to be occupied. Empty rooms failed their purpose, while unused systems represented money and labor that should have been directed elsewhere. That reasoning belonged to a world where materials could be reordered, damaged machinery could be replaced and construction crews could return tomorrow.

But now, Jinhai’s emptiness served a purpose of its own.

Every unopened package and unused room preserved time for the six people inside Xiling.

The shelter didn’t become available to strangers merely because they wouldn’t need it until the Flood, any more than a bridge became unnecessary because no one planned to cross it that day.

Zeyu had believed they could replace whatever the survivors consumed. Qinghe had seen people suffering and searched for a way to help them. Shichen had considered allowing the facilities director inside because a building always benefited from someone capable of maintaining it.

All three of them had treated Jinhai as an asset that could be loaned and repaired later.

Hanchuan had understood that later might not exist.

"The isolation is complete," Shichen announced. "The public portions of the tower can no longer communicate with the protected section, and no exterior controls remain active."

Jingwei immediately opened the security protocols for the other eight properties. "I’m disabling their external request panels. Our biometrics and emergency codes will still work, but no one outside will be able to contact us through the shelters."

"Apply the same defensive protocol to all nine," Hanchuan ordered. "Give them one warning. If they retreat, stop the response. If they continue, eliminate the threat."

Qinghe turned away from the camera showing Gao. "By eliminate, you mean kill."

"If necessary," Hanchuan confirmed. "I won’t disguise the order to make it easier for any of you."

"I wasn’t asking you to disguise it." Qinghe’s gentle voice hardened without becoming louder. "I wanted everyone in this room to understand exactly what we’re authorizing."

"They understand just fine."

Qinghe looked toward the other men before settling his attention on Zhiyi.

She hadn’t joined their argument or asked Hanchuan to reconsider. Instead, she continued checking the environmental reports from Jinhai as if the decision had already been reduced to a fixed condition.

Perhaps, for her, it had.

Zhiyi completed the diagnostic check and reopened the full shelter network. "Jinhai has retained all food, water, medical supplies and essential equipment. The loss of the external transfer connection doesn’t reduce its projected occupancy period."

Zeyu studied the nine properties arranged across the display. His usual humor had disappeared during the confrontation. "We nearly gave it away."

"Yes," Hanchuan replied.

He didn’t accuse Zeyu or remind the others that he had been right. He didn’t need to. Luming was already inaccessible, while Xiling’s western tunnel had failed before they had spent two full days underground.

Shichen restored Jinhai to the Flood survival calculation. Its supplies covered the expected two-year disaster, an early arrival and the uncertain period before they could safely move to a Freeze shelter.

Hanchuan had warned them that redundancy disappeared one property at a time.

Shichen finally understood that protecting the remaining properties meant defending more than food, equipment or expensive buildings. Each shelter represented another chance to survive when the one before it failed.

Zhiyi combined the inventories, equipment projections and protected occupancy periods across the network. The final estimate appeared beneath the nine shelters.

GUARANTEED SUPPLY: 30 YEARS

Jinhai Tower had gone dark around an untouched shelter, but the darkness no longer made it appear abandoned.

It was waiting for them.