The tunnel shook like something alive.
Mira braced herself against the concrete wall as dust rained from above, the roar of collapsing stone echoing through the underground passage. Malik grabbed her arm and pulled her forward.
"Move!" he shouted. "They're sealing the upper exits!"
"You think I don't notice that!?" Mira yelled back.
Behind them, the metallic thump of boots hammered through the tunnel—too many to count. Too synchronized to be normal security.
These weren't the men from the streets.
These were something else.
They sprinted deeper into the old metro maintenance shaft. Pipes hissed overhead, steam burning against Mira's face as they darted around a bend. The lights flickered—then died.
Darkness swallowed them whole.
"Malik?" Mira whispered.
"Quiet," he breathed.
Heavy footsteps approached the intersection behind them, slow and deliberate, like hunters tracking their prey.
Then a mechanical click echoed.
Malik swore. "They've got trackers."
Mira's heart sank. "Trackers? As in—"
"—they can hear your heartbeat? Yeah."
A beam of red light swept across the tunnel behind them.
No time left.
Malik grabbed something from his pocket, shook it, and it lit with a faint blue glow—a cracked emergency lamp.
"We make a run for it," he whispered. "There's a service hatch ahead. Goes even deeper."
"Deeper?" Mira hissed. "How deep does this place go?"
"Deep enough," he said grimly. "And it's not supposed to exist."
---
### **The Ambush**
They ran again.
The tunnel opened into an abandoned platform—cracked tiles, old safety posters peeling from the walls, the broken remains of an escalator that led into darkness.
Mira skidded to a stop.
Six figures dropped from the shadows above them like wolves.
Black armor.
Glowing visors.
Silent.
"Sector Security doesn't move like that," Malik said under his breath.
"They're not Sector Security," Mira whispered.
"What are they?"
Before she could answer, the nearest soldier lunged.
Mira ducked, rolled across the platform, grabbed a rusted metal pipe from the ground, and swung. The soldier blocked it with an armored forearm—but the impact made him stumble.
Malik charged another one, kicking him straight in the visor. The helmet cracked.
For a moment, Mira thought they had a chance —
— until the remaining four rushed them at once.
She barely dodged a baton that crackled with electricity. Another grabbed her wrist, twisting until she dropped the pipe.
She gritted her teeth.
Fine.
No weapons then.
She slammed her elbow into the soldier's throat. His grip loosened, and she ripped off his visor, smashing it against his face. He hit the ground hard.
Malik wasn't doing much better; he was outnumbered, pinned against a pillar, fists up but tiring fast.
"We can't hold them!" Mira shouted.
"We don't need to—duck!"
She dropped just in time.
Malik hurled a maintenance toolbox at one soldier's head. The metal exploded into tools and debris, giving them a three-second opening.
It wasn't enough.
A voice boomed through the platform speakers—distorted, metallic.
**"Target Mira Khan secured for acquisition."**
"NO!" Mira shouted, twisting away from the soldier holding her.
But a net fired from above, pinning her to the ground. She struggled, teeth clenched, the threads cutting into her arms.
Malik charged toward her—
—but three soldiers tackled him at once, forcing him to the floor.
The metallic voice spoke again.
**"Bring them below. The Overseer wants them intact."**
Malik groaned. "Below? Below what?"
The nearest soldier leaned in, voice robotic.
"Below the city."
---
### **The Descent**
They were dragged through a locked door at the far end of the platform. It hissed open with a hydraulic shriek, revealing a freight elevator that plunged into blackness.
Mira struggled, but the net constricted tighter.
One soldier pressed a button, the elevator shuddered, and they dropped.
Down.
Down.
Too far down.
"This elevator shouldn't even exist," Malik muttered.
"It doesn't," Mira said, voice shaking. "Not on any map."
The soldier turned its visor toward her.
"Correct."
The elevator finally stopped with a bone-deep thud.
The doors opened.
Mira's breath caught.
They were in a massive cavern lit by rows of mechanical towers, cables stretching from floor to ceiling like steel vines. Screens flickered with encrypted code. Generators hummed. Hundreds of people moved through the space—some in lab coats, some in armor, all with the same glowing insignia:
**A serpent coiled around a metro line.**
"The Underline…" Malik whispered in disbelief. "But that's a myth—"
"No myth," a calm voice interrupted. "Welcome to the truth."
A man stepped forward. Older. Composed. Wearing a long coat with the serpent emblem carved into the collar. His eyes were sharp—too sharp.
Mira felt her pulse freeze.
"You're—"
"Yes," he said. "The Overseer."
He approached her, kneeling so she was eye level with him.
"Metro Shadows are shifting, Mira Khan," the Overseer said softly. "And you are standing at the center of everything."
"I don't even know what you want," Mira spat.
"Oh, but you will," he replied. "Your mother once knew."
Mira's entire body went still.
"My… what?"
The Overseer smiled slightly.
"Yes. Your mother. She helped us build the Underline. And she hid something from us before she vanished."
Mira's voice cracked. "You're lying."
"I don't lie," he said. "And we will recover what she stole."
Malik struggled against his captors. "Leave her alone!"
The Overseer didn't look at him.
"Bring Mira to the Archive Chamber," he ordered. "The memories will reveal everything."
Mira's blood turned to ice.
"Wait—memories? What memories?"
"The ones you were never told," the Overseer said. "The ones she sealed inside you."
Mira's breath stopped.
Inside her?
Before she could speak, the soldiers dragged her toward a glowing corridor.
Malik shouted her name.
The Overseer turned away.
The cavern hummed with power.
And somewhere in the shadows beneath the city, something older than the Underline stirred awake.