Chapter 10 · Beneath the Acid

The amber corridor breathed around them.

Eve dragged Cain through the open safety gate, one of his arms hooked over her shoulders. His boots scraped across the metal threshold, leaving thin smears of blood that steamed where they touched the floor. Behind them, rifles cracked in the emergency passage.

A blue energy bolt struck the gateframe. The whole doorway shuddered. Sparks fell like hot rain.

“Move,” Nora snapped through the comm in Eve’s ear. “That gate is not going to hold against consortium hardware.”

“No kidding.” Eve tightened her grip on Cain. “Where does this tunnel go?”

“Down. Obviously.”

“Useful.”

“Keep going for forty meters. Then take the left maintenance shaft. The right one is flooded.”

A second bolt punched through the opening behind them. Cain’s weight sagged harder against Eve. His breath rasped against her temple, wet and shallow.

“Cain.”

“I’m walking.”

“You’re bleeding on me.”

“Then stop complaining.”

His voice had lost its usual knife-edge. That frightened her more than the blood.

Eve glanced back. Three consortium hunters were forcing their way beneath the half-closed gate. Their armor glowed with white targeting lines.