Chapter 27 · Greywolf Names His Price

"Three bolts." Voss slammed the door and cranked them shut. Heavy ones. The kind that said *you're not getting back out the way you came in.*

Eli hit the wall and slid down, chest heaving. Rachel bent over, hands on her knees, trying to drag air back into her lungs. Kai stood with his back to the door, rifle still up, listening.

No footsteps. No gunfire.

Just silence.

"They're not following," Kai said.

"They will." Voss crossed the room—some kind of maintenance office, concrete walls, a single desk bolted to the floor—and yanked open a locker. He pulled out a radio, cranked the dial. "Grey to Outpost Three. Lock down the north tunnel. I want every lamp off in sixty seconds. Anything with a council uniform comes through, you put it down."

Static crackled back. A voice confirmed.

Eli wasn't listening. His hands were shaking. He could still see her. Maya. Twisted. Wrong.

But her eyes had been clear. Just for a second.

*Stop the train.*

Rachel straightened, wiping blood from her lip. "What the hell was that?"

"That was the truth." Voss clipped the radio to his belt and turned. His face was hard.