We crawled through the shaft. Metal walls. Exposed wiring. My dress caught on every protrusion. The fabric tore. I ignored it.
Behind us, guards were trying to open the maintenance panel. Shouting. Calling for override codes.
“They’ll get through,” Brevan said, his voice tight.
“Faster,” I said.
We reached the junction. The shaft split in three directions. I didn’t hesitate. “Straight ahead. Then down the vertical access tube.”
I grabbed the rungs and descended. Hand over hand. The tube was maybe three meters. My palms burned from the metal. I didn’t slow down.
The tube opened into another horizontal shaft. This one wider. Tall enough to crouch instead of crawl.
Brevan dropped down behind me. “Where does this lead?”
“Service bay sublevel. The hangar is accessible from there.”
“How far?”
“One hundred twenty meters. But the lockdown is progressing.” I glanced at Flinx. His eyes were still dim. “He can’t hold it much longer. Two minutes until full seal.”
Two minutes to cover one hundred twenty meters while being hunted. The math was bad.
“Let’s go,” I said.
We moved through the shaft. Faster now. The space allowed us to run hunched over instead of crawling. I led. I knew the way.
The shaft opened into a service bay. Industrial. Filled with maintenance equipment. Loading drones. Repair stations. And at the far end, a reinforced door marked “HANGAR ACCESS.”
Empty. No guards.
Too easy.
“Flinx, scan for?—”
The door burst open.
Eight of Tarsus’s Elite Guard. Mondians. Heavy armor. Military-grade weapons. They filed into the bay and took positions. Professional. Coordinated. Blocking the only exit.
We ducked back into the shaft.
“They’re waiting for us,” Brevan said. “They knew we were coming.”
“The hangar is the only extraction point,” I said. “Every other exit is sealed or monitored. We have to go through them.”
I looked at the guards. Eight of them. All trained. All armed. All positioned to cut us down the moment we emerged.
My mind went through options. Scenarios where we survived this. I came up empty.
“We need a distraction,” I said. “Something big enough to split their attention.”
Brevan checked his blaster. “I have six shots left. Not enough.”
Flinx offered, his voice strained in my head.
“Then we need something they can’t ignore.” I studied the service bay. The equipment. The drones. The repair stations.
The loading drones.
