"We don't have time to mourn him, Leila! If we don't move these copies right now, Commander Vance’s enforcement squads are going to kick through that door and turn us into grease stains right beside him!" Kaelen shouted, his face carved into hard, unforgiving lines as he shoved a stack of damp, freshly printed corporate confessions and bank routing numbers into a weather-proof canvas courier bag."I know that!" Leila screamed back, her voice cracking with a raw, shattered fury as she slowly released her grip on Zaid’s cold, lifeless hand. She stood up from the blood-soaked concrete of the mechanic's pit, wiping a streak of crimson and grease from her cheek with a trembling, violent swipe. "I am the one holding the bags, remember? So stop yelling at me and start packing the digital drives before I use this cutting torch on your shins!""That's the spirit," Mara muttered from the shadows near the entrance, her tactical vest already zipped to her throat, her fingers deftly checking the m

"If we stay on this open platform for another two minutes, Vance’s automated sector sweepers are going to paint the concrete with our teeth, Leila. Move!" Kaelen hissed, his fingers gripping the cold, vibrating rail of the high-altitude observation nest as he hauled a heavy canvas courier bag over his bruised shoulder."Let them try," Leila snapped back, her eyes locked on the chaotic sprawl of the Sector 3 transit hub directly beneath their elevated metallic perch. "Look down there, Kaelen. Look at what Zaid died to put into their hands. They aren't going back to the shift pods. Not today.""They're terrified, not invincible, and fear makes people do stupid things like panic right into the path of an enforcement tank," Kaelen retorted, catching her by the elbow and yanking her hard behind the rusted casing of an industrial ventilation unit. "We have a forty-second window before the transit security feeds cycle back to this sector. Are we climbing down the internal freight ladder, or

The metal walls of the defunct refrigeration unit hummed with a low, bone-chilling vibration that had nothing to do with machinery and everything to do with the heavy dread settling into Leila’s chest. The air inside smelled sharply of stale grease, frozen mold, and the metallic tang of dried blood that still caked the knuckles of her right hand. Outside, through the heavy, insulated rubber flaps of the doorway, the low rumble of corporate patrol skiffs vibrated against the floorboards, their engines whining at a high, aggressive pitch as they swept the alleys of Sector 2."Keep your voice down," Kaelen muttered, his breath pluming in the freezing dark as he hunched over a jury-rigged transceiver resting on an overturned plastic crate. His fingers, wrapped in greasy black electrical tape, danced across a salvaged tactical keypad with frantic precision. "If the localized frequency dampeners pick up this signal before the burst packet clears, Vance’s boys won't even bother kicking the d

"Move that crate," Leila said, her voice dropping like a lead weight into the narrow space between the structural ribs of the ventilation catwalk. Fifty feet below, the churning chemical runoff canal of Sector 3 emitted a steady, toxic violet glow that cast long, distorted shadows across the dripping iron infrastructure.Kaelen didn't move. He sat cross-legged on the cold, vibrating metal grille, his breath pluming in the damp air as he wiped a smear of dried blood from the casing of his jury-rigged terminal. "If we move the crate, the thermal refraction changes. Vance’s drones aren't just sweeping the ground anymore, Leila. They’re running vertical pattern scans every ninety seconds.""I don't care about their scans," Leila snapped, stepping forward and kicking the plastic crate aside with a sharp, metallic clang that echoed dangerously down the long, hollow shaft of the ventilation run. "We've been hiding in the dark for twelve hours while every corporate hunter in the upper sectors

"Move!" Kaelen hissed, his hand shooting out to grab Leila’s wrist with a grip that left no room for argument. "Right now. We’ve got less than ten seconds before the thermal sweep cycles back to this exact frequency."Leila yanked her arm free, her eyes blazing in the dim, pulsing red light of the failing exhaust fan overhead. "I told you, Kaelen, I am not running another yard until we figure out how to patch into the secondary administrative relay. If we keep crawling through these pipes like rats, Vance wins without even firing a shot!""Vance isn't going to fire a shot, Leila! He’s going to drop a tactical incendiary charge down this entire ventilation shaft and bake us like bread in a convection oven!" Kaelen didn't wait for her to agree; he hooked his arm around a rusted conduit pipe and pulled his lower body into the narrow, vertical maintenance tunnel, his boots scrambling frantically against the slick corrugated walls. "Look up, you stubborn idiot!"Leila jerked her head upwar