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The mutant's fingers dug into Lin Mo's shoulder. Its breath came hot and wet against his neck. The name it had spoken hung in the air like smoke from a chemical fire.
"Say that again." Su Jin's voice cut through the crowd noise. She'd stopped running. People around them were still scrambling away from the body, from the blood, from Lin.
The mutant's grip loosened. It looked at Su Jin, then back at Lin, then it let go and melted into the gap between two container stacks. Gone. Lin stood there with his shoulder throbbing and his mind racing. That name. Nobody down here should know that name. Nobody topside should know it either, not anymore.
"Lin." Su Jin stepped closer. "What the hell was that?"
"I don't know." Lin rolled his shoulder, felt the bruises already forming. "I've never seen that one before."
"Not the mutant. The name."
Lin met her eyes. She wasn't asking. She was testing. "Later. Right now we've got a bigger problem."
"Bigger than you being the center of two bodies in three days?"
"Yeah." Lin turned toward the crowd, scanning faces. "Lei's gang didn't send one guy. They sent a probe. When he doesn't report back, they'll know I'm here. They'll know you're helping me. And they'll come in force."
Su Jin went quiet. Around them the market was starting to breathe again. Vendors were coming back to their stalls. Scavengers were picking up dropped goods. But the eyes were all on Lin and Su Jin now. Watching. Waiting to see what the boss would do with the man who brought death twice.
"How long?" Su Jin asked.
"Hours. Maybe less." Lin felt the tattoo on his arm start to itch. The Trade Curse always itched when it smelled desperation. "They'll hit the main entrance first, then sweep the tunnels. If they get past your watchers, they'll be inside before you can lock it down."
"My watchers don't miss."
"Lei's boss doesn't send people who get spotted."
Su Jin's jaw tightened. She looked past Lin, toward the center of the market where her people were waiting for orders. "We can hold the entrance. We've done it before."
"Not against this." Lin felt the itch spread up his arm, under his sleeve, crawling toward his chest. The curse was listening. It was always listening. "Lei's second in the chain. His boss has resources. Real ones. The kind that buy Bureau gear and mutant muscle."
"Then what do you want me to do? Roll over?"
"No." Lin pulled up his sleeve. The tattoo was moving now, black lines shifting under his skin like oil on water. "I want you to let me get us an advantage."
Su Jin looked at the tattoo. Her expression didn't change but Lin saw her hand move, just slightly, toward the blade on her hip. Everyone down here knew about cursed ink. Most people tried to cut it out. The ones who didn't usually ended up dead or worse.
"What kind of advantage?" she asked.
"The kind that tells us where they're coming from and when." Lin pressed his thumb against the tattoo. It pulsed once, warm under his skin. "I can get Lei's route map. His boss's pattern. A window where they're exposed."
"And the cost?"
Lin hesitated. The tattoo whispered in his mind, not words exactly but the shape of the deal. He could feel it measuring him, measuring what he had left to spend. Three days of life had bought him the intel that brought the first body. What would a map cost? What would a window into Lei's boss cost?
The answer came cold and clear.
"My left eye," Lin said.
Su Jin blinked. "Your eye?"
"The vision in it. Not the eye itself." Lin tried to keep his voice level. "I'll still have it. I just won't see out of it anymore."
"That's permanent."
"Yeah."
"You're telling me you'll go half blind to get us a map."
Lin looked at her. "I'm telling you I'll go half blind so your people don't get slaughtered when Lei's gang comes through with Bureau rifles and a dozen mutants on leashes. You pulled me out of that pit. You gave me water and a corner to sleep in. This is me paying it forward."
Su Jin studied him. The market noise had faded into background hum. Lin could hear his own heartbeat, could feel the tattoo waiting for his answer, could see the calculation happening behind Su Jin's eyes. She was a boss. She'd stayed alive down here by knowing when to trust and when to cut loose.
"Do it," she said.
Lin pressed both thumbs against the tattoo and spoke to it the way Dr. An had taught him, clear and direct. "I want Lei's route map from topside to here. I want his boss's movement pattern for the last week. I want the next window when they're separated."
The tattoo pulsed twice. The trade offer formed in his mind, crisp as a contract written in blood.
Accepted. Full vision, left eye. Permanent. Non-reversible.
Lin closed his eyes. "Deal."
The pain hit like a nail gun to the temple. Lin's left eye went white, then dark, then white again. He felt Su Jin catch him before he hit the ground. Heard her shouting for Dr. An. The market spun and Lin's stomach tried to turn inside out. His left eye was still there, he could feel it, but the vision was gone. Just black. Not even black. Nothing. A hole in his sight that his brain kept trying to fill and failing.
Then the information came.
It flooded in like water through a burst pipe. Routes and timings and faces. Lei's path from his gang's topside warehouse down through three abandoned subway lines, past two Bureau checkpoints, into the hidden entrance that fed into Su Jin's market. His boss's pattern, the way he moved between safehouses, never sleeping in the same place twice. The guard rotations. The weapon cache locations. The mutant handlers and their schedules.
And the window. Tomorrow, 4 AM, when Lei's boss would be moving between two safehouses with only three guards. Vulnerable. Mortal.
Lin opened his right eye. Su Jin was crouched next to him, one hand on his shoulder, the other holding a knife. Dr. An was pushing through the crowd with his med kit.
"I've got it," Lin said. His voice came out rough. "I've got everything."
"Can you stand?"
Lin let them pull him up. His balance was off, his depth perception was gone, but he could stand. He blinked and his right eye worked fine. His left eye was just dead weight now, a useless ball in his skull.
Dr. An reached them and immediately started checking Lin's pupil response. "What did you trade?"
"Left eye vision," Su Jin answered. "For intel."
Dr. An's jaw tightened but he didn't say anything. He just kept checking, professional and fast. "The eye itself is intact. No damage to the structure. But the vision's gone, completely. This is curse work, not injury. I can't fix it."
"Don't need you to." Lin pulled away and turned to Su Jin. "Get me something to draw with."
Someone handed him a piece of charcoal and a flat metal sheet. Lin started sketching, his hand moving from memory that wasn't his own, drawing the routes and timings that the curse had poured into his brain. His left side was a blind spot now. He had to keep turning his head to see the whole sheet. It felt wrong, broken, but he kept drawing.
Su Jin watched over his shoulder. "This is their path?"
"Three paths. Lei uses this one." Lin tapped the main route. "His boss uses these two, alternating. They meet here." He marked a junction point. "That's where they're vulnerable. Tomorrow, 4 AM, three guards only."
"And you know this how?"
"The curse doesn't lie. It can't. That's part of the deal."
Su Jin leaned closer, studying the map. Her people were gathering now, forming a tight circle around them. Lin could feel the attention, the weight of everyone wanting to know if this broken man with his new blind eye was worth the risk.
Then Su Jin pointed to something on the map. Her finger stopped at a mark Lin had drawn without thinking, a red dot at the edge of the market territory.
"What's this?" she asked.
Lin looked at it. The information was there in his head, clear and cold.
"That's where Lei's boss is right now," Lin said.
The crowd went silent.
Su Jin's voice dropped to a whisper. "Right now. As in—"
"As in he's already inside your market," Lin finished. "He's been here for the last two hours."