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Lin didn't make it twenty steps before someone screamed.
He spun around. A woman stood at the mouth of the container alley, pointing at him. Her face twisted up. Not scared. Angry.
"That's him!" She was already backing away. "He killed Zhao!"
Lin's stomach dropped. He looked down. His hands were clean. His shirt was clean. He'd been careful not to touch anything at the body site. But the woman was yelling louder now and people were coming. Fast.
"Wait—" Lin started, but she was gone.
Footsteps echoed off metal. A lot of them. Lin turned and saw five men rounding the corner. They had pipes. One had a machete. They weren't here to talk.
"I didn't—" Lin tried again.
The machete guy didn't slow down. "Su Jin's rat. You bring the body and now you think you can walk?"
Lin ran.
He didn't think. He just moved. The alley split left and he took it. His shoes slapped against wet concrete. Behind him the footsteps multiplied. Voices bounced off the shipping containers stacked three high on both sides. He couldn't tell how many were chasing him now. More than five.
His lungs burned. He wasn't built for this. He'd been a dealer, not a runner. He sold phones and laptops out of a storefront. The closest he'd come to cardio was walking to the bus.
The alley opened into a wider space. Old subway cars lined both sides, gutted and converted into stalls and shelters. People saw him coming and scattered. A pot of something boiling tipped over. Steam hissed. Lin vaulted a crate and his knee clipped the edge. Pain shot up his leg but he didn't stop.
"Block the east side!" someone yelled.
Lin veered right. His arm throbbed where the curse mark sat under his sleeve. He could feel it. Warm. Almost alive. Like it was paying attention.
He ducked under a tarp strung between two containers. Came out into a narrow corridor. The walls here were slick with condensation. Somewhere above, pipes dripped. The sound covered his footsteps for maybe three seconds. Then he heard them behind him again.
A door. Rusted metal with no handle. Lin slammed his shoulder into it. It didn't move. He hit it again. The lock gave and he stumbled through into darkness.
He pulled the door shut. Leaned against it. His heart hammered so hard he thought his ribs would crack. He tried to breathe quiet but his body wasn't cooperating.
Footsteps passed outside. Voices argued.
"He went left."
"No, I saw him go through—"
"Check the market side."
The voices faded. Lin stayed pressed against the door. His eyes adjusted. He was in some kind of storage space. Shelves lined the walls. Boxes stacked high. It smelled like rust and old cardboard. And something else. Something sharp and familiar.
Blood.
Lin's stomach turned. He didn't want to look but he already was. In the back corner. A shape. A body.
Not again.
He moved closer. He didn't want to. But if he was already getting blamed he needed to know why. The body was fresh. Fresher than Zhao. The blood was still spreading across the floor. Lin stepped around it. He crouched down. Male. Late twenties maybe. Face swollen on one side. The same blunt trauma pattern he'd seen an hour ago.
Lin's mark burned hotter.
The door burst open.
Su Jin stood in the doorway. Alone. She had a knife. Short blade. The kind you hide easy. Her eyes went from Lin to the body to the blood on the floor.
"I didn't—" Lin started.
"I know." She stepped inside and shut the door behind her. "He's been dead less than an hour. You've been with me."
Lin exhaled. His hands were shaking. "Then why—"
"Because someone's making it look like you." Su Jin moved past him to the body. She didn't flinch. Just knelt down and checked the pockets. "Same method. Same weapon profile. This is Gao. He ran a parts shop two levels down."
"Why would someone frame me? I just got here."
Su Jin pulled something from Gao's jacket. A folded piece of paper. She opened it. Read it. Her jaw tightened.
"Because you're useful." She held up the paper. "This is a list. Three names. Zhao. Gao. And mine."
The room tilted. Lin grabbed the shelf to steady himself. "Someone's killing your people."
"And making it look like the new guy with the magic intel source." Su Jin folded the paper and pocketed it. "They're cleaning house and setting you up. Two birds."
Lin's mark pulsed. He pressed his hand over it through his sleeve. "Who?"
"Don't know yet." Su Jin stood. "But they're going to try for me next. Which means—"
The explosion cut her off.
The whole room shook. Dust rained from the ceiling. Lin hit the ground. His ears rang. Su Jin was already at the door. She cracked it open. Orange light spilled through. Fire.
"They're burning the market sector," she said. "Flushing us out."
"Us?"
"You're with me now. That makes you a target." She looked back at him. "Can you run?"
Lin's knee screamed. His lungs weren't done complaining from the first chase. But he nodded.
They ran.
The corridor was chaos. People streamed past. Some carried bags. Some carried kids. Smoke poured from somewhere ahead. The air tasted like burning plastic. Lin followed Su Jin. She moved like she'd mapped every inch of this place. Cut left through a gap in the containers. Right through a doorway that looked like wall. Down a set of metal stairs so steep Lin almost ate concrete.
Another explosion. Closer. The shockwave knocked Lin into the railing. Su Jin grabbed his arm and hauled him upright.
"Keep moving!"
They hit the bottom level. The old subway platform. Train tracks ran through the middle, half-buried in trash and makeshift walls. Su Jin headed east. Lin stayed on her heels. His mark was burning now. Actually burning. Like someone was holding a lighter to his skin.
Something moved in the smoke ahead.
Big. Wrong shape. Lin's brain tried to make it human but it wasn't. Too tall. Arms too long. The smoke cleared for half a second and he saw it. Skin mottled gray and black. Eyes that didn't blink. Mutation virus. Stage three, maybe four.
The mutant saw them.
It moved fast. Faster than it should. Su Jin brought her knife up but it batted her aside like she weighed nothing. She hit the platform wall and dropped. Didn't get up.
Lin froze.
The mutant turned to him. Its mouth opened. Teeth filed sharp. It made a sound. Not words. Not yet. Then it lunged.
Lin dove left. His knee gave out and he went down hard. The mutant's hand slammed into the concrete where his head had been. Cracks spiderwebbed out from the impact.
Lin rolled. Tried to get up. The mutant grabbed his ankle. Lifted him. Lin's vision spun. He was going to die. Again. Still. Whatever.
His mark screamed.
The voice was in his head. Cold. Mechanical.
*Trade available. Offer: right hand mobility, five years. Receive: temporary enhanced strength.*
Lin didn't think. "Yes!"
His right hand went numb. Then his arm. Then something else flooded in. Power. His muscles didn't grow but they felt like they could tear steel. He swung. Connected with the mutant's wrist. Bone cracked. The mutant dropped him.
Lin hit the ground. Rolled. Grabbed Su Jin's knife from where it had fallen. The mutant came at him again. Lin didn't try to dodge. He stepped in. Drove the knife up under its jaw. The blade went in smooth. Too smooth. The mutant staggered. Made that sound again. Fell.
Lin's arm was already going cold. The strength was draining out. He had maybe seconds. He dropped the knife. Grabbed Su Jin. Dragged her toward the east tunnel. His right hand was useless now. Flopped like dead weight. He used his left. Pulled her into the dark.
They collapsed twenty feet in. The smoke didn't reach here. Lin's ears were still ringing. His hand was gone. Not gone. There. But he couldn't move it. Couldn't feel it. Five years of mobility. He'd used his right hand for everything. Now it was just meat hanging off his wrist.
Su Jin coughed. Sat up. Blood trickled from her temple. She looked at Lin. At his hand. At the tunnel behind them where the mutant's body lay.
"What did you do?" Her voice was rough.
Lin opened his mouth. Didn't get to answer.
Something grabbed him from behind.
Another mutant. This one smaller. Female, maybe. Its hand closed around Lin's throat. Lifted him. He couldn't breathe. His vision started to tunnel. Su Jin was shouting but the sound was far away.
The mutant leaned close. Its breath smelled like rot. Then it spoke.
Two words. Clear. Impossible.
"Chen Baiyu."
Lin's blood went ice.
That name. That name was from topside. From before. From the life Lin thought he'd left behind when he ran down here.
Nobody down here should know that name.
The mutant smiled. Dropped him. Vanished into the dark.