Shadows in the Dark
The tunnel swallowed every sound, leaving only breath and the creak of the van. Rain dripped through the cracked ceiling, each drop echoing like a countdown.
“Elias?” Mara whispered.
“I’m here.”
“Lights are gone. They killed the power.”
“Means they want panic,” he said. “Don’t give it to them.”
Lila groaned in the back seat. “Run… before they close in.”
“Not without answers,” Mara hissed.
A voice boomed through hidden speakers, distorted. “Detective Quinn. Step out, and no one else has to die.”
Mara raised her pistol. “Not buying that.”
Elias chambered a round. “They’re stalling. Probably flanking both ends.”
“Then we move first.”
“How? We’re boxed in.”
Mara tapped the keycard still in her pocket. “Maybe not.”
Elias frowned. “You trust what that masked freak gave you?”
“It’s the only lead we have.”
Lila stirred. “South archives… they’ll kill you for going there.”
“They’re already trying,” Mara said. “Question is why.”
Static hissed. Then the same cold voice: “You’ve been chasing ghosts. But ghosts have roots. And roots bleed.”
“Cute,” Mara muttered. “But you’ll need better lines.”
Elias aimed at the van doors. “They’re surrounding us.”
“Options?” she asked.
“Fight or negotiate.”
“Negotiation isn’t my style.”
A thud rattled the van. Boots scraped outside. A hand banged against the steel. “Open up, Quinn. Last chance.”
Mara leaned close to Elias. “Think you can buy us a thirty-second window?”
“With explosives? Always.”
She smirked despite the tension. “Do it.”
He pulled a charge from his pack, set it against the van’s rear door. “Ready in ten.”
“Make it five.”
“Pressure much?”
“Always.”
Lila whimpered. “You can’t fight them all. They’re everywhere.”
Mara squeezed her hand. “I don’t need to fight them all. Just enough to make them bleed.”
The speaker crackled again. “Tick tock, Detective. Your father once made the same mistake thinking he could outlast us.”
Mara stiffened. “Don’t you dare talk about him.”
“So you don’t know,” the voice purred. “He was one of us. Until he wasn’t.”
Elias shot her a sharp look. “Mara— gnore it.”
“Not this time.” Her jaw clenched. “I want names.”
The voice chuckled. “Room thirteen. That’s where he left the truth. Same place you’ll die if you go there.”
“Three seconds,” Elias whispered.
“Do it.”
He hit the detonator. The rear door blew outward with a thunderous bang. Smoke and sparks filled the tunnel.
“Go!” Elias roared.
Mara shoved Lila forward, covering her with her body as they leapt out. Shouts rose in the chaos, men blinded by smoke.
Elias fired short bursts, dropping two figures. “Left flank clear!”
Mara dragged Lila toward a maintenance ladder bolted to the wall. “Climb!”
“I can’t,” Lila gasped. “Too weak.”
“Then I’ll carry you.”
She slung the woman over her shoulder. Boots thundered behind them. Bullets sparked off concrete.
“Mara, move!” Elias shouted.
She scrambled up the ladder, Lila’s weight dragging her down. Adrenaline carried her higher. Elias covered, reloading in practiced rhythm.
“Mara, two more incoming!”
“Handle it!”
“I always do!”
They reached a service hatch. Mara slammed it open, shoving Lila through. Elias followed, panting.
Above them stretched a forgotten maintenance corridor narrow, dripping, lined with rusted pipes.
“They’ll chase us,” Elias said.
“Good. Let them.”
Lila clutched Mara’s arm. “You don’t understand. They don’t stop. Ever.”
“Neither do I.”
Sirens wailed faintly in the distance city patrols, maybe, or more enemies.
Elias checked his rifle. “We can’t drag her far. She needs medical.”
“She needs truth,” Mara said. “We all do.”
The comm crackled again. “Detective, you can run tunnels all night. But you’ll never outrun your own blood.”
Mara snarled. “Come say that to my face.”
“Soon,” the voice promised. “Room thirteen waits.”
They pressed on, boots slapping against damp concrete. The corridor bent into darkness.
“Mara,” Elias said quietly, “what if they’re right? About your father?”
She shook her head. “He died a good man.”
“Or he died before you saw the rest of him.”
Her hands tightened on her weapon. “Don’t.”
“I’m saying be ready. If what we find links back to him”
“Then I’ll burn every last file to ash.”
Lila groaned. “That’s what they want. Fire erases. Fire forgets. They always use fire.”
Mara’s throat tightened. “Then we’ll use it against them.”
A clatter echoed behind them boots on steel. More pursuers.
“Time’s up,” Elias said. “We run or we fight here.”
Mara lifted her pistol. “Both.”
They reached another ladder leading upward. Elias climbed first, covering with his sidearm. Mara pushed Lila after him, then followed.
The hatch opened into an abandoned warehouse dust, shadows, broken glass. Moonlight slanted through shattered windows.
“We hold here,” Mara said.
Elias nodded. “They’ll breach in minutes.”
Lila shivered. “You can’t hold them. Not here. They own this city.”
“Then we’ll remind them cities bite back,” Mara said.
The speaker crackled again closer now, as if the voice was inside the building. “Room thirteen, Mara. Come alone, or more bodies drop.”
Elias’s jaw tightened. “They’re herding you.”
“I know.”
“Then why follow?”
“Because if I don’t, they’ll keep killing people who never chose this.”
Lila gripped her hand. “Don’t go. They’ll turn you too.”
Mara met her gaze. “They’ll try.”
Glass shattered. A laser dot painted across Mara’s chest.
Elias dove, tackling her to the ground. The shot cracked, splintering wood.
“They’re here!” Elias shouted.
Shadows moved in the rafters. More lasers flickered.
Mara rolled to her knees, gun ready. “Come on then! You wanted me take your shot!”
The voice whispered from the darkness, soft and chilling: “Not tonight. Tonight, we only remind you.”
A flare burst overhead, blinding white light searing the warehouse. Mara shielded her eyes.
When the glare faded, the rafters were empty.
Elias swore. “They’re gone.”
But Mara’s gaze fell to the floor at the mark burned into the wood. A symbol, sharp and deliberate.
The Circle. With her family crest etched inside it.
Her stomach dropped. “No…”
Elias saw it too. “Mara… what the hell does that mean?”
She shook her head, voice breaking. “It means they’ve been inside my bloodline all along.”
And then the warehouse lights exploded, plunging them into blackness as doors slammed shut on all sides.