The Shadow in My Hand

The Price of Betrayal

The barrel of the sniper rifle points straight at my chest through the glass of the train door.

Outside in the yellow fog of the District 3 station, Sloan stands with her dark hair tied back in a tight braid. A cold smile stays on her lips, and her fingers rest lightly on the trigger of her heavy gun. She does not look like a lost friend or a random stranger. She looks like a hunter who has finally cornered her prey.

Beside me, Elena stiffens. The cool confidence she always wears drops away for a single second, replaced by a flash of real anger.

"Sloan," Elena says, her voice low and sharp. "You always were a parasite who lived off other people's work."

"I prefer to call myself a survivor," Sloan calls back, her voice echoing clearly through the station. She steps closer to the train window, keeping the gun steady. "While you spent three years playing double agent for the Council and using this boy as a tool to blow up the core, I built a real faction down here in the outer rings. And right now, the outer rings want a prize. Hand over Project Seven, Elena, and maybe I will let you walk away with your life."

I look between Elena and Sloan. My chest tightens with a hot wave of frustration. Once again, I am just an asset to be traded. Once again, people are arguing over what to do with my body and my powers.

"You think you can just take me?" I step forward, placing my hand on the sliding glass door of the train.

Sloan laughs, a short, sharp sound. "You have raw power, boy, but you do not know how to use it. You are just a walking battery pack for whoever controls the code. Down here in District 3, the rules are different. If you do not belong to a faction, you belong to the ground."

"She is lying," Elena says, keeping her eyes fixed on Sloan through the glass. She reaches into her coat and pulls out a small metal device with a blinking green light. "Sloan does not care about any faction. She works for whoever pays the highest bounty. If she takes you to the black market traders in the south, they will tear your nervous system apart to copy the barcode on your wrist."

Sloan's smile fades slightly. She tightens her grip on the rifle stock. "Shut your mouth, Elena."

"It is true, and you know it," Elena fires back, stepping up beside me. She does not look at me when she speaks, but her shoulder presses against mine. "Sloan sold out our old network five years ago. She is the reason our mentors ended up inside the Council's test tubes."

A heavy silence falls over the station. Sloan's face darkens with pure hatred.

"You talk too much, Elena," Sloan says, her voice dropping to a dangerous level. "Time to die."

Sloan's finger twitches on the trigger.

"Get down!" Elena shouts, shoving me hard to the floor of the train.

A loud crack splits the air as a heavy high-caliber bullet smashes straight through the glass door, showering the cabin with sharp transparent splinters. The bullet embeds itself deep into the metal wall behind where my head was sitting a second before.

I scramble back to my feet, ignoring the fear pounding in my chest.

"She is going to fire again!" I say.

"Not if we move first," Elena replies. She punches the manual override button on the train console. "Hold on!"

The train engine roars, and the vehicle jerks forward with sudden speed.

Sloan curses loudly outside, pulling the trigger for a second time, but the bullet goes wide, pinging harmlessly off the side of the metal roof as the train accelerates down the tracks away from the platform.

We shoot past the row of armored vehicles and plunge back into the dark tunnel system, leaving the yellow fog and Sloan's angry shouts behind us.

I sink onto the metal bench, breathing hard, running a hand through my hair. I look over at Elena, who stands by the dashboard, wiping a tiny drop of blood from her cheek where a piece of glass cut her skin.

"You never mentioned that you and Sloan had history," I say, my voice steady.

"There are a lot of things I never mentioned," Elena answers without looking at me. She leans against the console, her breathing slightly uneven. "In the outer rings, everyone has a past with someone. If you stay alive long enough, your enemies always catch up to you."

"And what happens when Sloan catches up to us again?" I ask. "We cannot run forever on an abandoned train."

Elena turns around and looks straight into my eyes. Her expression is completely serious, stripped of all games and manipulation.

"We do not run," Elena says. "We build our own faction. If Sloan wants the boy with the barcode, she is going to have to fight every single person in District 3 who wants the Council gone."

Before I can answer, the train gives a violent shudder. The engine stutters, and the yellow lights flicker off, plunging the cabin into absolute darkness.

The emergency brakes lock automatically with a sharp screech of metal grinding against metal.

The train slows to a complete stop in the middle of a dark, narrow tunnel.

"What is happening now?" I ask, standing up in the dark. "Did we run out of fuel?"

Elena taps the console, but the screens remain completely black. No power. No lights.

"We did not run out of fuel," Elena whispers, her voice tight with sudden tension.

A soft, red glow begins to pulse from the walls of the tunnel all around us. A mechanical voice echoes through the metal vents above our heads, cold and digital.

Sector locked. Unauthorized transport detected. Release the subject immediately, or face total system purge.

I clench my right hand into a fist. The barcode on my wrist starts to burn with an intense, blinding heat, casting a white glow across the dark cabin.

The roof of the train is suddenly ripped open with a deafening screech of torn iron.