Chapter 19 · Untitled Chapter

"Hold on!" Kane shouted as the elevator dropped.

Leia's boots left the floor. For one breath, gravity vanished. Then the car slammed down, driving her knees into the metal grate and Kane's injured weight against her side.

His breath scraped wetly. Blood soaked through the torn fabric beneath his ribs. Leia locked an arm around his waist before he slid under the rail.

"Still with me?"

"Unfortunately." His mouth twitched. "You sound disappointed."

"I'm thinking about the paperwork."

"Put 'heroic sacrifice' on the form."

"You don't qualify."

Another impact swallowed his laugh.

The shaft groaned around them. Cables shrieked inside the walls. Through the rusted lattice, the city slid past in broken layers—maintenance platforms, burned-out stations, vertical gardens reduced to pale roots.

Something enormous moved far below.

The motion reached them before the sound. A slow pulse rolled through the elevator floor and up Leia's palms.

Nolan crouched at the control panel with one hand under his nose. Blood threaded between his fingers. His other hand worked across a cracked interface, forcing commands through a system that looked older than the city above.

"Tell me you know what that was," Leia said.

"I don't."

"That wasn't the answer I wanted."