Chapter 6 · Undercity Broker - Chapter 6: Three Million for a Life

The man nailed to the tunnel door was still breathing.

Lin Mo heard it before he saw it. Wet, rattling breaths. The kind that meant lungs filling with something they shouldn't. He'd torn up his market pass thirty seconds ago and walked into the dark, and now his phone light caught the guy's face. Young. Maybe twenty-five. Hands pinned above his head with rebar through the palms. Blood ran down his forearms in slow lines, dripping off his elbows onto the concrete.

"Lin Mo." Lei's boss stepped into the phone light from the other side. His name was Zhou. Older guy, maybe fifty, with a scar that split his left eyebrow in half. He wasn't holding a weapon. Didn't need to. Four men behind him, all carrying pipe or rebar. "Let's talk about what you owe."

Lin's left eye was still half-blind from the trade yesterday. The vision came and went in gray patches. He could see Zhou fine. Could see the nailed guy's chest rising and falling too fast.

"Three million," Zhou said. "That's the number. You ran. Made my guys look bad. So now it's four."

The guy on the door made a sound. Not words.