Chapter 29 · Undercity Broker - Chapter 29: The Signal Upstairs

The lockdown siren split the air in three sharp bursts. Lin pressed his back against the container wall and felt the metal vibrate with the sound. The entire undercity was moving now. Doors slamming. Voices shouting grid codes. Boots on metal grating. He could still feel where Su Jin's fingers had dug into his wrist before he pulled free. The curse mark on his arm pulsed hot under his sleeve.

He had maybe ten minutes before all three factions locked down every ladder and stairwell. The signal had come from upstairs. From his mother's old room in the north stack. He hadn't been up there in two years. Hadn't wanted to. But the flash pattern was hers. Three long, two short. The one she used when she needed him to come home and not ask questions.

Lin pushed off the wall and started moving. The main corridors would be suicide. Bureau scouts would already be positioning at the choke points. Lei's guys would be working the mid-levels. And Su Jin's scavengers knew every blind spot in the grid. He needed another way up.

The service shafts.