Leo looked at the file properties. The "Date Modified" was listed as October 14, 1924.

The file was still downloading. From where, Leo didn't know, but the folder was starting to fill with new images—images of a city made of gold and ice, and a woman who looked exactly like Sarah, dressed in furs that hadn't been stitched by any human hand.

He stared at the date, then at the "IMG_8141.rar" icon. As he watched, the file size began to change. 40MB... 80MB... 1.2GB.

"I found it," Sarah’s voice whispered. She sounded breathless, not from exhaustion, but from awe.

The audio in the video began to distort, a low-frequency thrumming that made the speakers on Leo’s laptop vibrate. On screen, Sarah reached out a gloved hand. Just before her fingers brushed the metal, the flickering light of her headlamp stabilized into a blinding, steady gold.

Then, the camera didn't drop; it didn't cut to black. The video simply ended mid-motion, as if time itself had been clipped by a pair of scissors.

The footage was shaky, dominated by the sound of heavy boots crunching through deep, frozen snow. It was night. The only light came from a flickering headlamp, casting long, jerky shadows against a wall of blue ice.

In the reflection of the metal hull, Leo saw Sarah’s face. She wasn't scared. She was smiling, her eyes wide as if she were looking at a sunrise.