The roar of metal echoed behind him—Enforcers dropping into the chamber one by one, their boots clanging against the catwalks. Kieran's lungs burned as he sprinted, clutching the radio so tightly his knuckles whitened. Maya's voice still lingered in his ear, fragile but steady, a lifeline in the chaos.
"Two levels down, east side. Don't stop."
The fugitives trailed him, splashing and stumbling through knee-deep water. The scarred girl cursed under her breath, her fear masked by fury. "They're closing in! We'll never—"
"Quiet!" Kieran hissed, vaulting a collapsed railing. His boots skidded on the rusted surface, sparks flying as bullets ricocheted around him. The Enforcers had opened fire.
Maya's voice cut through the storm of noise. "Kieran, there's a gap ahead. A vertical shaft. You'll need to jump."
Jump? He rounded the bend—and there it was: a gaping hole in the metal platform, black as a throat, plunging straight down into darkness. Wind sighed up from the depths, carrying the stench of mildew and stagnant water.
He skidded to a halt at its edge. The fugitives nearly collided with him.
"You can't be serious," one of them gasped. "That's suicide!"
Bullets sparked against the wall beside Kieran's head. He made his choice in an instant.
"Follow me if you want to live," he growled. Then he leapt.
The fall was a blur of rushing air, weightlessness, and the distant echo of Maya's voice shouting his name. His body slammed into icy water far below, the shock knocking the breath from his lungs. Darkness swallowed him whole.
He kicked upward, lungs screaming, until he broke the surface. Above, faint light spilled through the shaft, and one by one, the fugitives splashed down beside him.
"Kieran!" Maya's voice crackled faintly through the soaked radio at his chest. "You made it. Good. Now… go east. The tunnels will twist, but I'll guide you. Whatever you do—don't lose the signal."
He dragged himself toward a dripping ledge, gasping for air, the weight of exhaustion threatening to drag him under. Yet even as the Enforcers' visors glowed red above the shaft's rim, too cautious to jump, Kieran felt a surge of something he hadn't felt in months.
Hope.
Because if Maya could reach him here, in the depths the city had abandoned… then maybe, just maybe, there was a way out.