The computer monitor atop the director's desk suddenly blacked out entirely, leaving an instantaneous silence that was instantly shattered by a low-frequency mechanical rumble echoing from every corner of the room.

Click... bzzzt—krrrk!

All around the fifth-floor main archive room, hidden hydraulic steel wall panels slid out from their frames in absolute unison. The bulletproof glass doors facing the outer corridor sealed shut, blanketed by ten-centimeter-thick sheets of steel. The massive glass windows showcasing the outside city skyline were instantly choked off by automatic security steel shutters.

Within seconds, the luxurious executive office transformed into an airtight steel isolation box with zero exits.

"Damn it!" Zulfa snarled, sprinting toward the primary steel door and hammering its surface with his fist. The door didn't budge an inch. "They've totally locked down this entire floor!"

Naya stood frozen for a second, her breath heaving fast as her eyes swept the room, which now resembled a military bunker. The sound of BISF security guards' combat boots outside the steel wall grew increasingly distinct, accompanied by the whir of a hydraulic cutting machine beginning to chew through the door hinges.

"Zulfa... we're truly trapped," Naya uttered with a trembling voice, hugging the red leather-bound dossier containing The Foundation Council roster tight against her chest. "The main door is hydraulically locked from the mainframe, and they've installed extra steel bars over the vents up top. We have no way out!"

Zulfa spun around, his brain spinning frantically to carve out an escape path amidst the rising tide of despair. "Don't give up, Naya. There has to be another route. Every government building has an emergency evacuation protocol or a hidden utility path behind the walls."

Outside the steel door, the grinding sound of the cutting machine hurled sparks visible through the gap beneath the door. They had less than two minutes left before the elite troops breached the room and riddled them with bullets.

"Quick, help me look for a manual switch or hydraulic control panel around this desk!" Zulfa ordered, rushing over to inspect the scattered drawers of the director's desk.

Naya nodded swiftly. She sprinted to the opposite side of the room, checking a massive wooden bookshelf bolted against the marble wall. As her fingers grazed a row of thick state administration books, Naya's hand accidentally bumped a medium-sized antique painting hanging crookedly beside the shelf—a classical portrait of the city's former mayor from the era of the first infrastructure's founding.

The painting shifted slightly, revealing something anomalous behind its canvas.

"Zulfa! Over here, fast!" Naya called out in a semi-whispered voice laden with urgency.

Zulfa, currently examining the floor panel, sprang up and rushed over to Naya. "What is it, Naya?"

Naya pointed toward the wall behind the old painting. "Not a control panel... but look at this."

Zulfa narrowed his eyes. Embedded behind the old painting was an antique iron wall safe fitted with a manual rotary combination lock, not a hackable modern digital system. The safe's iron face was caked in dust, as though untouched by human hands for decades.

"A manual wall safe?" Zulfa muttered in wonder. "Why is there a conventional safe in a high-ranking bureaucratic official's modern office?"

"Maybe this is where the director keeps personal items he didn't want hacked by Aethel Corp's systems," Naya guessed quickly. She looked at Zulfa anxiously. "But how do we open it? We don't have time to guess the number combination!"

The grinding sound at the outer steel door grew deafening. Orange sparks began jetting in through the gap beneath the door, signaling the hinges were nearly blown through completely.

"Stand back, Naya!" Zulfa ordered firmly.

Zulfa had no other choice. He grabbed Naya's heavy metal toolbox from the floor, using its sharp corner as an improvised hammer to bash against the wall safe's hinges and dial knob with his remaining strength.

Thud! Thud!

Crack!

With a brutal third strike, the antique iron safe door finally snapped from its mounts and crashed against the carpeted floor with a dull thud.

Naya dropped immediately to her knees, reaching deep into the dark cavity of the safe to check its contents. Inside the cramped safe sat no stacks of cash or golden documents. Instead lay a small velvet box and a black antique audio cassette tape with crude handwriting scrawled across its paper label: FOUNDING COUNCIL VOICE ARCHIVES - 1984.

Naya lifted the cassette tape with slightly shaking hands. "Zulfa... this is... an audio cassette tape?"

Before Zulfa could answer, a dusty, portable vintage mini cassette player tucked in the corner of the safe caught his eye. Without a second thought, Zulfa snatched the player, shoved the cassette inside, and hit Play.

Click—bzzzt.

From the portable player's tiny speaker, analog hiss crackled softly, before a middle-aged human voice finally rang out to fill the room amidst the roar of the cutting machine outside:

"Test recording, October 14th... I am Aris Arditama... alongside my fellow founding council peers. Today we agree to sign off on the Ley-Lines energy diversion project. They call it civilizational progress... but I know this is the beginning of the city's destruction. If this voice recording is discovered by someone in the future... know that The Foundation Council deliberately engineered this destruction for their false immortality. This recording is undeniable proof..."

Naya's eyes widened, staring down at the cassette in her hands with bated breath. "That... that's your father's actual voice, Zulfa! The voice of Dr. Aris Arditama recording proof of the founding council's confession decades ago!