Chapter 23 · The Heart Under Central

"Train's coming in two minutes." Mara's voice cuts through the concrete hum of the station. She's already moving, heels clicking fast on the platform tile.

I'm three steps behind, the ledger burning cold against my ribs. "You said we had time."

"I lied." She doesn't look back. "Keep up or get left."

The transit hub under Cinderfall Central smells like rust and recycled air. We're forty feet below street level, and the walls are sweating. Emergency lighting throws everything into yellow and shadow. Mara's got a data chip in one hand and her gun in the other, and she's walking like she knows exactly where the cameras are.

"Where's Ephraim's map take us?" I ask.

"Maintenance tunnel. East wall." She stops at a service door, kicks it open. "He said the core's behind the old freight line. If he's right, the city's been running its debt engine under a million commuters for twenty years."

"And if he's wrong?"

"Then we just broke into a restricted zone for nothing and you're still a dead man walking." She steps through. "Move."

The tunnel's narrow. Pipes overhead, water dripping somewhere I can't see.