"Get up, Ariful. Now." Zoya’s hand hooked into the collar of his saturated wool coat, hauling him to his feet before his knees could fully lock against the vibration of the concrete floor. "They’re running a secondary diagnostic sweep on the lower conduit. If they ping our heat signature in this sector, we’re done before we even touch the terminal."Ariful staggered, his boots skidding across the slick industrial linoleum of the Bastion relay station's ground-floor corridor. He shook his head violently, trying to clear the metallic taste of adrenaline and sulfur from the back of his throat. "I have to access the primary junction box. The cable car override isn't housed in the local terminal—they hardwired it to the main relay board after the last sabotage wave in the valley.""Then do it faster," Zoya snapped, shoving him toward a grey metal panel recessed into the wall beneath a flashing amber indicator light. She kept her pistol drawn, her eyes darting between the heavy reinforced s

"The cable's locked!" Toby screamed, his small hands wrapping around the greasy winch lever and throwing his entire weight backward. "It's stuck! They've got the brake engaged from the primary control room!"Ariful didn't hesitate. He lunged past the boy, his boots skidding across the slick metal decking of the landing dock as the massive iron cargo basket shuddered violently under their feet. The heavy steel cable above them groaned, a high-pitched, metallic shriek that vibrated straight through the soles of his boots and rattled his teeth."It's not an electrical lock!" Ariful yelled over the deafening roar of the wind rushing up the river gorge. "It's a manual deadbolt! There's a safety pin jammed into the secondary housing!"Zoya dropped to one knee beside the winch box, her pistol smoking slightly in the freezing mountain air. She didn't waste breath asking questions. "Where?""Underneath! Right behind the drive gear!" Ariful pointed a trembling, soot-stained finger into the dark

The cargo basket violently stabilized after the safety pin snapped, but the sudden, brutal jolt screamed through the stressed frame and shattered the internal teeth of the winch assembly with a deafening CRACK."Hold on!" Ariful roared, his voice instantly swallowed by the shrieking wind of the river gorge.Before he could grab the rusted guardrail, the secondary rebound flung him backward with staggering force. He slammed hard into a high stack of discarded, coiled fiber-optic cables, the heavy wooden crates splintering beneath his weight. A sharp, searing pain flared across his ribs, driving the air from his lungs in a ragged, whistling wheeze. He curled into himself, clawing at the coarse fibers of his jacket as his chest burned with an agonizing, molten heat."Ariful!" Zoya shouted, her boots slipping on the slick, oil-coated steel decking.She didn't wait for a response. The basket was swinging wildly on its single remaining suspension cable, bucking like a trapped animal over th

"Brace!" Zoya screamed, her voice tearing through the freezing gale as the cargo basket swung on its mangled cable like a grotesque pendulum, screaming toward the rusted iron receiving dock on the far side of the river gorge."I'm slipping!" Toby shrieked, his small fingers clawing frantically at the slick, oil-stained floorboards as the structure tilted at a terrifying forty-five-degree angle.Ariful lunged across the buckling deck, ignoring the white-hot agony radiating from his bruised ribs, and clamped his hand around the back of Toby’s canvas jacket. "I've got you! Do not let go!""Hang on to each other!" Zoya threw her entire body weight against the heavy iron frame, digging her boots into the rusted grating just as the basket slammed into the decaying timber and corrugated steel of the abandoned river-dredging station.The impact was catastrophic. A deafening shriek of tortured metal filled the air as the front gate of the cage shattered completely, rusted iron bars shearing of

"Keep your head down and stay directly behind my shoulder," Zoya whispered, her hand dropping instinctively to the holster at her hip as the hollow echo of their boots sounded against the cracked concrete of the cannery courtyard. "We aren't out of the net yet.""I know," Ariful rasped, his hand pressed firmly against his chest as another jagged cough tore through his throat. He forced the air down, fighting the weakness threatening to buckle his knees. "Just... give me a second to catch the rhythm of my stride.""You don't have a second," Zoya replied sharply, though her eyes softened for a fraction of a second as she glanced back at him. "Look at the mud by the loading bay. Fresh treads. Heavy boots, not refugee soles."Toby shrank closer to Zoya’s side, his fingers knotting into the fabric of her coat. "Are they Bastion patrols?""No," Zoya muttered, crouching behind a rusted-out shell of an old diesel fork truck. "Too sloppy for regular troopers. These are local tracks. Scavengers