The heavy sliding door of the disused train car screeched shut with a sound like tearing sheet metal, plunging the interior into a suffocating, ink-black gloom. Deyvorn slammed the iron bolt home, his breath coming in ragged, whistling gasps that echoed off the warped aluminum walls of the carriage. He leaned his forehead against the cold, grease-slicked surface of the cart, his entire body trembling from the sudden spike of adrenaline and the sheer physical toll of the sprint through the collapsed transit hub. Beside him, Tazvik collapsed onto a moldering bench with a heavy thud, clutching his ribs and coughing violently, each spasm sounding like dry branches snapping underfoot."Forty seconds," Deyvorn rasped, his voice tight with suppressed fury as he wrenched the stained canvas tarp back from the cart's wire-mesh bed. "Zervik said forty seconds before those automated drones swept the junction. If you hadn't stopped to catch your breath back at the switch point, we’d be breathing l

"Long enough to hear you crying about corporate drones and dragging a corpse-in-waiting through my sector," Mara said, shifting the heavy industrial plasma-cutter off her shoulder with effortless grace. The weapon’s nozzle tracked lazily toward Deyvorn’s chest, its pilot light hissing a steady, warning blue in the dark carriage. "You’ve got blood on your boots, courier, and half the corporate cleanup squad within three miles is pinging my perimeter alarms. That means you’re costing me money. And I don’t run a charity ward for bankrupt couriers and their geriatric pets."Tazvik groaned from the moldering bench, weakly raising a hand to flip her off without opening his eyes. "Tell the rusted grease-monkey to drop the heavy artillery before I lose my temper," he wheezed. "We brought our own gear, and we brought our own trouble.""Your trouble is currently occupying my favorite drainage tunnel," Mara snapped, stepping away from the door frame and closing the distance between them with pre

"Physical ledgers?" Mara’s lips curled into a dry, humorless smirk as she stepped closer, the blue pilot light of her heavy plasma-cutter painting a cold, electronic hue across her sharp cheekbones. "People don't use paper down here unless they're hiding something big from the net, courier. And big secrets make a lot of noise when they drop."Deyvorn shoved his utility knife back into its sheath with a sharp click, his eyes locking onto hers with hostile defiance. "They're just heavy garbage, Mara. Nothing you can fence on the black market or trade for a crate of synthetic protein.""Try me," Zervik cut in smoothly from the darker end of the battered railway car, stepping out of the shadows with his hands raised casually in a non-threatening gesture, though his eyes remained calculating. "Those ledgers contain quarterly financial projections for the mid-level synthetic protein refineries—projections that show a forty percent drop in nutrient density and a deliberate spike in chemical

"Corporate garbage talking about poisoning workers is rich coming from a man who looks like he just crawled out of an executive board meeting," Mara spat, her hand tightening around the insulated grip of her plasma-cutter as the blue flame hissed a warning into the damp air of the railcar. "Why should I trust a pencil-pusher who smells like fresh laundry and corporate cologne not to drop a tracking beacon in my backyard the second I turn my back?""Because your backyard is currently lit up by three squads of private security forces who tracked this exact cologne straight to your front door," Zervik replied without missing a beat, stepping closer with a cool, irritating composure that made Deyvorn want to punch him just to wipe the smirk off his face. "Unless you want your entire scrap empire reduced to slag by a plasma-sweep, you're going to let us use your secondary drainage exit, or we can all sit here and wait for the drones to knock."Mara's eyes narrowed into dangerous slits as s

"Keep your breath, old man, you're going to need every drop of it if we're making that drainage exit," Mara snapped, though the dangerous edge in her voice had softened just enough to betray a flicker of reluctant respect. She jerked her chin toward the gaping maw of the tunnel ahead, where the rusted tracks vanished into black, knee-deep sludge. "Ten minutes is all I'm giving you. If you drag your feet, I'm locking the bulkhead behind you and letting the corporate sweep turn your fancy suit into confetti.""Generous as always, Mara," Zervik muttered, smoothing down the lapel of his ruined jacket with an absurd display of mid-level corporate vanity. "Shall we?"Deyvorn grabbed the iron handles of his delivery cart, his muscles groaning in protest as the heavy wheels churned through the thick, viscous mud of the abandoned rail bed. Behind him, Tazvik shuffled along with a harsh, rattling wheeze, leaning heavily on a scavenged pipe for support. The air grew rapidly colder, smelling of s