**She Saw a Woman With Her Exact Face in the Woods—Then the Ground Split Open, Revealing a Secret Lab Full of Frozen Clones and Her Dead Father, Still Alive and Not a Day Older.**

Jonas checked the transmission panel. "The wire to the weather antenna is cut. Victoria must have ordered it before she came down."

"Then use a different wire," Clara said.

"There isn't one."

"There was a key in June's box," Clara said, suddenly remembering. "Brass. Shaped like a little pine tree."

Jonas looked up. "The weather-tower maintenance hatch. June kept the original key."

"I brought it," Clara said. "It's in my jacket."

Mara shook her head. "You can't go through the forest. Guards are still out there."

"Ortiz is in the forest too."

Evelyn lifted the emergency phone. "I'll guide her from here. And Jonas can hold the archive connection until the line is restored."

Victoria laughed from the corner where Marcus had tied her hands with a safety strap. "There isn't time. That tower hasn't worked in years."

"Then why did you cut the cable?" Clara asked.

Victoria went quiet.

Mara took Clara's hand. "I'm coming."

"You can barely stand."

"I've been locked inside this place my whole life. I'd like to see the trees before someone burns them down."

They took the service stairs, climbed a ladder slick with condensation, and emerged beneath the leaning oak. The clearing smelled of smoke and wet earth. Dawn was just beginning to soften the black line of the mountains.

"It's real," Mara said, looking at the sky.

Clara wanted to give her a whole morning to stare. Instead, they ran.

The weather tower stood on a hill above the ridge. Its service door opened with June's key. Inside, someone had torn the cable from the transmitter box.

Clara reached for the broken connector just as a shadow filled the doorway.