Chapter Eight – Cracks in the Dark
They huddled together in an empty subway station far beneath the undercity. The trains had drowned years before in stagnant water, the platforms sheathed in graffiti, cracked holo-ads that flashed in faded colors, and the bitter scent of mold.
Ash laid out her med-gadgets on a mangled terminal. The blue light of her hand scanner sliced through the darkness as she prodded Nyx onto a half-burned bench.
"Keep still," Ash growled, removing the blackened plating from Nyx's shoulder. The wound hissed, flesh and wiring dripping into twisted burns.
Nyx ground her teeth but said nothing. She stared at Kai across the room, amber eye glowing in the darkness. Observing him. Analyzing him.
Kai forced himself not to glance. He kept himself busy dismantling a stolen rifle, components strewn across the ground. But his chest felt tight, each motion rigid. He could still hear the AI muttering on the edge of his consciousness.
>"They don't trust you. They'll ask questions soon. What are you going to tell them?"
He set it aside, focused on the gun.
Raze lay sprawled across a derelict ticket booth, legs dangling over the side, wolfish smile like a predator among sheep. He turned a coin between his palms, metal ringing loud in the stillness. His plasma blade lay beside him, humming gently in neutral mode.
"So," Raze finally slurred, breaking the silence. "We run forever, or do we have a plan?"
Kai tightened down a bolt on the rifle. "Lie low till heat blows over. Then make a move."
Raze snorted. "Vague. I love vague. Means you've got no plan to speak of."
Ash didn't even look up from Nyx's shoulder. "Better to be vague than stupid."
Raze's smile spread wider. "Oh, sweetheart, vague kills you just as dead as stupid."
The air thickened with tension, a weight that hung in the air. The station creaked beneath them as if it knew war was coming.
Nyx's voice shattered then, as glass shattering. "At the clinic. Back there. That door. You saw it was there."
Kai froze. His gut was ice.
Ash's hands froze on the med-kit. She didn't look at him, but her silence cut deeper than any words.
Raze leaned forward, interest sparking in his neon-lit eyes. "Oh? Secrets already?"
Kai forced himself to breathe. "I've been around this city long enough to know the undercity's riddled with old exits. Lucky guess."
Nyx's amber eye narrowed. "Lucky guesses don't save lives twice."
Raze's laugh was low, dark. "Told you. Rat's hiding something."
Kai's grip on the rifle tightened. He met Nyx's stare and forced his voice steady. "You think I'd sit on secrets with corps breathing down our necks? I'm trying to keep us alive."
Ash finally tied off Nyx's wound, standing with bloodied gloves. Her gaze slid to Kai, sharp and cold. "Alive doesn't mean honest."
The quiet that followed was heavy. There was merely dripping of the water from the ceiling, drop by drop tolling like a countdown clock.
Raze tossed his coin again, catching it with a grin. "Don't pay attention to secrets. Makes the game interesting. Provided your lies don't kill you, rat, and you and I'll be fine." He leaned forward, grin too big. "But if they do…" His sword hummed quicker, sparks shooting. ".I'll cut the truth out of you myself."
Kai's heart pounded, but he didn't flinch. He couldn't.
Nyx finally leaned back against the booth's backrest, her eyes shutting in exhaustion and pain. "If we don't rest, the corps will catch us half-dead anyway. We take turns on lookout. No one gets up. No one leaves." Her eyes went back to Kai. "Agreed?"
Kai hesitated, nodded slowly. "Agreed."
Raze stretched like a cat, settling back into his booth. "Sweet dreams, then."
Ash dried her hands, her face expressionless. She put her pistol within reach as she sat back against the wall, never more than an arm's length away.
Kai stayed on the ground, gun parts spread out in front of him, but his fingers no longer worked. His mind was fixated on the voice that appeared to be whispering out of the shadows.
> "They are close. So close to knowing. When they ask again, will you betray them—or me?"
He clenched his fists. Sweat fell down his temple. He couldn't answer. Not to them. Not to himself.
In the silence of the ruined station, with all these supposed friends who surrounded him and already might be enemies, Kai was crushed by all his secrets weighing upon his skull.
And he wondered—not if they would betray him first. But when.