Kade just won’t be involved in it.
His place is in the Tower.
The Tower of Iron Star isn’t the tallest building in Varrow City, but it’s unquestionably the strongest.Once a deserted high-rise, it stands on the outskirts of the main city, freight roads between woodland and industrial estates that have been picked clean, three miles west of a lake that, according to Luca, is a renowned make-out spot.
Kade wouldn’t know.
He’s nevermade outwith anyone.
Their home is a vertical core surrounded by a base that functions as both shield and buffer.At ground level, the base building forms a hardened perimeter of thick concrete, limited access points, controlled sightlines.Below that, newly updated tunnels run outward into the city like arteries, built for movement without exposure.The roads nearby are isolated and exposed.Anyone approaching on wheels can be seen from miles away which makes the tunnels so essential.
Several years ago, Kade redesigned the sewer tunnels surrounding Iron Star.He narrowed sections, installed choke points and added a disposal chute leading down to an incinerator for the ample bodies they tend to rack up after an attack wave.
No one is stupid enough to walk up to the main gates, but the tunnels are catnip for attacks.The trick is, they only know about thewalkables.
Formerly sewers, they’re built to be purposefully confusing; a labyrinthine maze of sewage, steel and concrete.Kade knows his way by heart, but the Touchtrail remains for those who are new and still learning.
You’d have to know where to feel for them.
The sewer tunnels are public knowledge, hence the bottlenecked attacks, but nobody outside Iron Star knows about the driveable one.Cleverly hidden, vehicles move out unseen, emerging beneath a satellite blind spot along a quiet stretch of highway and they come back the same way.Kade’s been through it a handful of times with his boss, but not for well over a year.
Kade is the First Captain of Iron Star, bodyguard to the boss and a member of High Command.Kade is responsible for all matters of operational force, tactical response, and internal security, but he’s not authorised to leave the Tower and even if he was… well.His place is here.
The Tower is hishome.
Iron Star is hisfamily.
Varrow City is hisworld.
And this is his life.
Kade’s sweep confirms that thesewerethe last of them and with no high interest intelligence to drag back, he nods at Hiru and Rike to start gathering the bodies to dispose of them down the chute for incineration.
He stops halfway back, head cocked.
The air feelsstrange.His ears detect something slightly… off.
‘Mara,’ he says, retrieving his knife from a body.‘Scan frequencies.’
‘Heard.’
Kade guides the rest of his team out of the tunnels through a single access hatch that only opens from above.
‘You’re bleeding, just FYI,’Luca informs him, lightly jabbing the wound with two fingers when he pulls himself up.‘Could be fatal, who knows?’
Kade shoots him a look, though he gives no reprimand.Rank preserved as always, but everyone in Iron Star is family.‘You wish, Lucozade.’
Mara comes up next.Hiru and Rike will be the last.
She’s got eyes on her device.‘Kade, there’s interference.’
Fucking hell, he knew it.‘What kind?’
‘Pre-jam diagnostic.’
Kade’s mind instantly snaps into gear.
‘Get Hiru and Rike back up here.Alert the Watch.’
