The twin diesel engines shrieked as Lin Feng shoved the heavy throttle levers to the floor, forcing thirty tons of steel and treads through the whiteout.Behind them, the sky over Riverdale tore open. High-altitude artillery rounds hit the northern residential district with a sound like shattering mountains. The air pressure dropped so fast Chen gasped, her ears popping as she gripped the dashboard with both hands."They are shelling the city center!" Chen screamed over the engine roar, her face illuminated by the bright red flashes reflecting off the snowdrifts. "They are not even waiting for the twelve hours!""The flares were the final warning," Lin Feng said, leaning his body weight into the left steering lever as a six-story commercial building collapsed into the street fifty yards ahead.A wave of pulverized concrete and shattered glass slammed into the side of the snow-rover. The heavy treads shuddered, chewing through three feet of burning masonry before regaining traction on

The metallic tapping against the floorboards stopped, replaced by the dull groan of shifting steel. Lin Feng kicked the insulated floor panel aside. Beneath the synthetic matting, a circular maintenance hatch had been unbolted from below. Before the rusted hatch could swing fully open, Lin Feng reached down into the dark opening, his gloved hand clamping around the throat of the man climbing the iron ladder. He yanked the intruder up, slamming him face-first onto the warm floor. "Do not shoot!" the man gasped, his eyes wild with terror in the bright LED light. He was wrapped in filthy rags, his skin grey, his lips stained with a dark, greenish slime. "The surface is dead! We are the Tunnel Folk!" Captain Chen bolted upright, her pistol clearing her holster before her mind fully registered the warm room. "Lin Feng, drop him!" "Where does this shaft lead?" Lin Feng growled, tightening his grip on the man's neck. "To the subway line," the scavenger squeaked, pointing a trembling fin

The air in the subterranean vault was thick with the suffocating reek of sulfur and warm, damp rot. Steam hissed from hairline fissures in the polished chrome floor, rising toward a high ceiling hidden in dense, humid fog.Chen pushed herself up onto her knees, coughing violently as grey soot blew out of her hair. "Lin Feng... what is this place?""An old military containment sector," Lin Feng said, stepping over a fractured steel support girder. His visor hummed, switching to low-light thermal vision. "The mountain's geothermal activity breached the lower foundation decades ago."Across the ruined floor, Ironmask groaned, pulling himself out from under a pile of rubble. His welding helmet had been torn off, revealing a scarred, middle-aged face slick with sweat and grime. Three of his surviving lieutenants crouched near him, their scrap-iron weapons raised in trembling hands."Look," Ironmask rasped, pointing a bloody finger toward the dark shadows beyond the chrome pillars. "Look at

The scalding pressure inside the volcanic shaft roared like a jet engine."Grab the winch line!" Lin Feng yelled over the deafening hiss of steam.He fired a heavy titanium grappling hook straight up into the vertical vent above them, the cable snapping tight as the motorized spool inside his vest engaged. He grabbed Captain Chen around the waist, pulling her flush against his chest just as a thirty-foot column of boiling mud exploded out of the floor below.The automated winch hauled them up the dark, narrow chimney at breakneck speed. Superheated vapor scorched the outer fabric of their coats, but within twenty seconds, the violent red glow of the magma pit gave way to blinding white sky.They breached the top of the steam vent, tumbling out into a fifty-foot snowdrift on the upper ridge of the Southern Mountain Pass.Chen rolled onto her back, coughing violently as the minus-ninety-degree air hit her scorched lungs. Frost instantly formed on her eyelashes. "My god... we made it out

General Vance swirled the amber liquid in his glass, watching the amber light catch the condensation on the crystal. He didn't look like a man who had survived an ice age. His skin was clean, his hair trimmed, and his uniform lacked a single speck of tundra grime."Look around you, Lin Feng," Vance said, leaning his elbows on the polished mahogany desk. "This isn't a ruined concrete box like Riverdale. Beneath this mountain lies a four-tiered subterranean city. Hydroponic bays, filtration plants, medical sectors. Complete climate control at seventy degrees."Captain Chen took a sharp step forward, her tactical boots leaving a smeared outline of melted slush on the carpet. "You built a paradise for yourselves on the backs of thousands of refugees down in those pit shafts."Vance didn't even glance at her. He kept his sharp, calculating eyes fixed on Lin Feng. "The weak dig so the capable can preserve civilization, Captain. That is not cruelty. That is simple arithmetic.""You always di