"I’m telling you, Jaka, you fire that gas-choked convection beast up without a baffle, and every tactical patrol from the Upper Concourse to the central transit hub is going to smell roasting garlic and trace our exact coordinates," Kanya warned, her tactical boots hitting the concrete platform with sharp, authoritative snaps as she marched straight toward the massive, commercial-grade oven. She jabbed a gloved finger at the heavy steel exhaust pipe running upward into the ceiling’s rusted grating. "Do you understand what 'covert operation' means, or does your brain only process recipes?"Jaka didn’t look away from the gleaming control panel, his thumb casually wiping a smudge of soot from the temperature dial. "Of course I understand covert operations, Kanya. It’s just that my operation involves covertly making these hydroponic greens taste incredible instead of boiling them like miserable swamp weeds. Bambang risked his life dragging that crate out of a collapsing ventilation shaft;

"Don't shoot! I'm not with the patrol, I swear on my mother's grave, just... please, gods above, is that actual garlic?"Leo stumbled past the threshold of the iron bulkhead, his frame trembling violently as his eyes locked onto the gleaming commercial-grade oven. The runaway was scarcely eighteen, dressed in the threadbare, ash-stained gray jumpsuit of a lower-tier Heights sanitation worker, his hands raw and bleeding from scrambling over jagged chunks of concrete in the dark transit tubes.Kanya didn't lower her sidearm, her posture rigid as she stepped into his line of sight, her finger resting lightly against the trigger guard. "Hands on your head, right now. Drop the bag. You made enough noise to wake every scavenger from here to the central terminal. Why shouldn't I put a round through your shoulder and feed you to the rats?""Wait, wait, wait!" Leo shrieked, stumbling backward against a stack of empty crates while keeping his wide, terrified eyes glued to the sizzling pan on Ja

"Get down!" Kanya hissed, her hand shooting out to grab Leo by the collar of his threadbare jumpsuit and jerk him hard behind a rusted, hollowed-out ventilation bulkhead.Leo gasped, his boots scraping loudly against the gritty concrete floor before he clamped both hands over his mouth to silence himself. "Wh-what? Did they see us? Are the enforcers from the Heights already down here?""Quiet," Kanya whispered, her eyes locked on the pitch-black mouth of the intersecting transit tube fifty yards ahead. Her sidearm came up instantly, the tactical light tracking the damp shadows. "That wasn't a rat or a dripping pipe. Someone's moving with military discipline. Too quiet. Too coordinated."A faint, rhythmic clink of heavy boots echoed down the concrete corridor, followed by the low, grating whisper of a tactical radio frequency bouncing off the curved subway walls."Sector four perimeter is clear," a harsh, filtered voice crackled from the gloom, barely audible over the hum of distant mu

"Hold that steel steady, Bambang, or the entire anchor bolt is going to shear off before we even get the latch welded," Kanya barked, her hands gripping the edge of a massive, corrugated steel subway door as it screeched against the pitted concrete floor. Sparks showered down from the makeshift torch Bambang was wielding, casting a harsh, flickering orange light across the soot-stained walls of the main transit entrance.Bambang didn't break his rhythm, his massive shoulders flexing beneath a grease-stained canvas apron as he fused the heavy iron hinge directly to the structural support beam of the platform. "The bolt's holding, Kanya. Stop shouting in my ear or I'll weld the escape hatch shut while you're still standing on the wrong side of it.""Try it and I'll use your favorite cleaver to chop your boots off while you're sleeping," Kanya shot back without missing a beat, her eyes darting constantly back toward the pitch-black mouth of the tunnel where the recent skirmish had just t

"The main line is completely dry, Jaka. Not a single drop is coming through the overhead valves," Kanya announced, marching into the kitchen area with her tactical boots clicking sharply against the concrete platform. She dropped a heavy, empty aluminum canteen onto the wooden prep table with a hollow, metallic thud that caused the rows of spice jars to rattle dangerously. "If we don't fix this by nightfall, we won't even have enough moisture to boil rice, let alone prep the broth for tomorrow's trade."Jaka didn't even look up from the cutting board where he was meticulously slicing wild garlic bulbs into paper-thin rounds with his favorite carbon-steel utility knife. "Dry? What do you mean dry? I checked the auxiliary storage tanks just yesterday afternoon, and the pressure gauge was holding steady in the green zone.""The gauge is lying, or the municipal supply from the upper levels has finally been cut off completely," Kanya retorted, crossing her arms tightly across her chest as