Kieran sprinted across the rusted platform, the fugitives stumbling after him, their splashes echoing like gunshots in the flooded chamber. Behind them, red light strobed as the Enforcers advanced, their footfalls precise, mechanical, inevitable.
The voice still pulsed in his head, bleeding through the static of the radio. Kieran… you have to move… now.
His chest burned. His mind whirled. It sounded like Maya. It was Maya. But how?
He skidded to a halt behind a collapsed section of catwalk, pressing the radio to his ear as if sheer will would pull her through. "Maya?!" he hissed, his throat raw. "Is that you?"
For a moment, only static. Then the faintest reply—choppy, broken, but real.
"Kieran… I found a relay. I can… see you."
The scarred girl tugged at his arm. "We don't have time for ghosts!"
"Quiet," Kieran snapped, his eyes never leaving the radio.
The signal cracked, then sharpened into Maya's voice again: "We hacked into the old subnet. Selene… rerouted the city's surveillance through the underground lines. The radio's picking it up. That's how I'm talking to you."
Kieran's knees nearly buckled with relief. She was alive. Not only alive—watching him, guiding him.
But the words sent a chill through him. The subnet. It was supposed to be dead, a forgotten infrastructure buried beneath decades of expansion. If Maya and Selene had tapped into it, they weren't just piggybacking on old lines—they were breathing life back into something the Enforcers had worked hard to bury.
The static roared again, then softened. "Kieran, listen. They've cut off your exits. But there's a maintenance shaft two levels down, east side of the chamber. It leads into the arterial tunnels. That's your only way out."
Another crash shook the room as an Enforcer dropped from above, its red visor flaring to life. Water hissed around its armored boots as it scanned the chamber, head jerking unnaturally.
Kieran clutched the radio tighter, his mind racing. Maya wasn't just a voice. She was his map, his eyes where his couldn't see. If she and Selene had hijacked the subnet, they might be able to guide him through the maze.
"Got it," he whispered fiercely into the receiver. "Don't lose me, Maya. Not again."
The fugitives stared at him like he was mad, but he didn't care. He darted toward the eastern edge of the chamber, trusting the invisible thread between him and his sister.
And behind him, the Enforcers followed—relentless, unshaken, closing the gap.