He took one step back, turned, and ran for the stairs.
Ronan was waiting in the hallway when he returned. The club president's expression changed the moment he saw Eli's face. He pulled the boy away from the main room so they would not alarm the people still leaving through the windows.
"I told you to stay upstairs," Ronan said.
"I know. I'm sorry. The light is red, and the display shows changes already completed. There's a release command with about forty minutes remaining, maybe less now. I don't know what's being released."
Ronan's jaw tightened. For a brief moment, he looked as though he wanted to say a great deal about twelve-year-old boys and the responsibility of adults. Then he glanced through the doorway at the crowded hall and chose the problem that could not wait.
"You tell me what you know," he said. "And from now on, you do not go anywhere alone. Understood?"
"Understood."
Ronan turned to Cutter. "Tell Hamish we're evacuating through the east windows and that there's an unknown release sequence. Keep the language precise. We don't know what's in those cylinders."
Cutter sent the message. A minute later, it showed as delivered.
Ronan looked at Eli again. "Whatever this is, we'll get everyone out before it finishes. That's the plan."
Eli wanted to believe him. Outside, thunder rolled across the hillside, and the wind struck the building hard enough to shake dust from the rafters. Inside, twenty-seven people had already reached the safe area. The rest waited patiently because the people they trusted were telling them that patience, for the moment, was still useful.
Then from the north storage room came a sharp metallic report, followed by a low vibration beneath the floor.
The maintenance corridor had changed from an uncertain escape route into something actively dangerous.
The sound from the storage room sent every nearby head turning toward the north hallway. Garrett moved first, putting himself between the storage-room door and the people waiting by the windows. Mara followed him with a flashlight, stopping at the threshold while she listened for anything that sounded like the beginning of structural failure.
There was no crash, no dust cloud, and no vibration strong enough to shake the shelves. The metallic sound came again, followed by a brief series of clicks from somewhere beneath the floor. A new indicator had appeared inside the access opening, its glow visible even from the doorway. Mara did not approach the equipment. She pulled the storage-room door shut and asked Boone to keep everyone away from that end of the building.
"What was it?" Garrett asked.
"Something changing state," Mara answered. "That's all I can honestly say. It could be a lock, a pressure control, or another part of the system. We treat the passage as unsafe."
The answer was not satisfying. Nothing about the night was satisfying. Garrett looked toward the east windows, where another group was leaving, and flexed his hands as though he wanted to grab the building itself and force it to make sense. Ronan came to his side, studied the door, and told him to redirect his frustration toward the work that still needed doing.