Chapter 28 · Burn It From Inside

The pit smells like rust and old fear.

I'm standing at the edge of the access shaft. Karl's beside me. Marcus's route got us this far—down through the maintenance tunnel, past two checkpoints where the guards were too busy watching the main entrance to notice us slip through a service door. Now we're here. The real entrance. The one that drops straight into the blood farm Eli's been running under the city for six years.

Karl's breathing is steady. Mine isn't.

"You don't have to go down," he says.

I look at him. "You think I came all this way to wait in the car?"

He doesn't answer. His hand's on the railing, knuckles white. The mark on my shoulder is cold. It's been cold since we left the safe house. Like it knows what's coming.

I pull the blade Marcus gave me out of my jacket. It's silver, thin, sharp enough to cut through a bond mark if you know where to press. Marcus said it would hurt. He didn't say how much.

"Once we're inside," I say, "we split. You go for the main floor. I'll find the control room and shut down the ventilation.