The console flickered, then nearly died, a rain of sparks spitting out of its cracked casing. Maya jerked her hands back, her fingers blackened with soot. The old subnet station was barely holding together. Every keystroke felt like she was asking too much of a ghost.
Beside her, Selene was a shadow of calm, though Maya could see the tension etched in the lines around her mouth. Her hands flew across another keyboard, rerouting feeds, slicing through firewalls like they were vines in a jungle.
"Don't let the link drop," Selene murmured. "If he loses your voice, he loses his way."
Maya's heart pounded. She tightened the headset against her ear, straining to hear over the static. "Kieran… can you hear me? Please answer."
For a breathless moment, silence. Then—his voice, broken by interference but alive. "Still here. Just keep talking."
Relief washed through her, nearly knocking her back in her chair. He sounded exhausted, battered—but alive. She swallowed the lump in her throat and forced her words to be steady, guiding, strong.
Selene leaned over the monitors, her eyes narrowing. Dozens of red markers pulsed on the screen—Enforcer traces, triangulating on their location. "They've noticed us," she said flatly. "We've got maybe five minutes before they pinpoint this hub."
Maya's stomach knotted. "Then we move."
"Not yet." Selene slammed a key, and the subnet map expanded, showing the arterial tunnels stretching like veins under the city. "If we run now, the link dies. And if the link dies…"
Kieran's face flashed in Maya's mind—the fear in his eyes, the desperation when they were separated. She clenched her jaw. "Then he's gone."
Selene didn't reply. She didn't need to.
The room shook as a low hum began to build—machinery awakening above them. The Enforcers were cutting through the upper levels.
Maya wiped sweat from her brow, her voice cracking but unwavering as she spoke into the mic: "Kieran, east tunnel ahead. You'll see a rusted gate. It looks locked, but it'll give if you ram it. Go now—don't stop."
Selene's fingers stilled. She stared at the screen, something unreadable flickering in her expression.
"What is it?" Maya asked.
"The subnet…" Selene whispered. "It's not just transmitting. It's… listening. Every time we send instructions, something on the other end is responding. Like it wants us to keep the line open."
Maya froze, the words crawling into her bones. She thought of the whispers in the static, the way her voice seemed to stretch through wires older than the city itself. She thought of how the Enforcers had buried these tunnels, sealed them like a grave.
And for the first time, she wondered if she was guiding Kieran—or if something else was guiding her.