"Don't move," Zoya whispered, her voice dropping to a harsh, razor-thin edge that cut straight through the dense, dust-choked air of the signal cabin. She reached out blindly in the pitch blackness, her fingers clamping down hard around Ariful’s thin wrist, stopping him mid-stride as he started to shuffle toward the back corner of the room. "Stay right where you are. Not another step."Ariful froze, his breath coming in shallow, wheezing hitches that rattled deep inside his chest. "What is it?" he murmured, his voice barely audible over the relentless whistling of the alpine gale outside. "I thought I heard—"Outside, right against the rotting wooden planks of the cabin’s front wall, a low, wet growl vibrated through the floorboards. It was a thick, guttural sound, vibrating with pure predatory malice, followed immediately by the harsh, tearing scrape of heavy claws raking frantically against the frozen timber.Scratch. Scritch-scratch. Thud.Toby let out a sharp, choked gasp, his sma

"Move, I said! Now!" Zoya’s voice cracked through the blinding sleet like a whiplash, driving Ariful and Toby forward through the jagged, waist-deep shale of the alpine cut.Behind them, a sharp, echoing crack split the howling wind—the unmistakable sound of a high-velocity hunting rifle discharging. A split second later, a fist-sized chunk of grey shale exploded into a cloud of vicious stone splinters barely a foot to the left of Ariful’s shoulder, showering them both in stinging, razor-sharp debris."He's got us zeroed in!" Toby shrieked, scrambling up the steep, slippery incline of the dry waterfall gully on his hands and knees, his fingernails clawing frantically at the frozen mud and loose gravel. "He's going to pick us off one by one!""Not if you keep your head down and your legs pumping!" Zoya roared back, dropping to one knee behind a massive, weather-worn slab of granite. Without a moment’s hesitation, she pulled her battered sidearm from her holster, raised it with both han

"The cars are all sealed," Ariful wheezed, his knuckles white as he leaned heavily against the cold, rusted flank of a massive boxcar. A thin line of pink-tinged spittle tracked down his chin, but he swallowed it back with a grimace, refusing to let another coughing fit compromise their position. "Every single one of them. Heavy sliding doors, iron drop-latches, and lead seals stamped by the freight master. We aren’t getting in.""We have to get in," Zoya hissed, her eyes scanning the milling crowd of shift workers and railway mechanics. Twenty yards away, a pair of transit guards in heavy grey greatcoats were leisurely inspecting a manifest clipboard, smoking foul-smelling herbal cigarettes. "Vance isn't far behind us. If he cleared the ridge half as fast as we did, he’ll be stepping out onto these tracks within ten minutes. Look closer, Ariful. There has to be something.""I am looking," Ariful muttered, his fingers tracing the jagged rust flakes peeling off the side of the car. "An

"He’s checked the manifest office," Zoya whispered, her eyes locked on Vance as the bounty hunter shouldered his scoped rifle and took two long, unhurried steps toward the row of timber cars. "Which means he’s heading straight down this line. Ariful, get the boy inside. Now." "The latch is rusted solid, Zoya," Ariful hissed back, his voice a frantic rasp as he threw his full weight against the heavy iron handle of the boxcar door, his boots slipping in the frozen grease coating the ballast. "It won’t budge! Toby, push from the bottom!" "I am pushing!" Toby grunted, his small hands wedged into the freezing gap between the sliding metal door and the car frame, his face turning bright red as he strained against the heavy timber structure. "It’s caught on something inside!" "Move," Zoya ordered, her voice dropping into that terrifyingly calm register that meant she was out of options and running purely on tactical violence. She shoved Ariful aside with a sharp elbow, planted her boot ag

The heavy sliding door of the timber car slammed shut with a deafening, metallic crash that echoed off the rusted iron ribs of the carriage, cutting off the howling alpine wind and plunging the interior into near-total darkness. "Ariful, the secondary latch! Drop the safety pin now!" Zoya shouted, her voice tight and compressed as she threw her entire weight against the wooden wall, her breathing ragged and shallow from the frantic sprint across the rail yard. "I'm trying! The grease—it's frozen solid!" Ariful’s voice drifted back from the gloom, accompanied by the frantic scraping of metal against metal and a series of sharp, desperate curses that were immediately swallowed by a sudden, violent spasm of coughing. He muffled the sound with his sleeve, his frame shuddering violently in the dark. "Don't let him cough too loud," Toby whispered, his voice trembling slightly as his small hands groped blindly along the rough timber planks of the floor. "If Vance is still out there on the