Chapter 26 Chapter 26
They crawled until the pipe widened enough to stand. Light spilt faintly from a rusted grate above them. Adrian switched off the flashlight and pressed a finger to his lips. Footsteps passed overhead—heavy, deliberate. One of the pursuers spoke into a radio, the words distant but sharp.
Nina held her breath. A drop of water fell from the grate and hit her cheek; she flinched. Adrian’s hand found hers in the dark, steadying her. The warmth of his palm cut through the cold.
Minutes passed before the sounds above faded. He squeezed her fingers once before letting go. “We move.”
They followed the tunnel until it sloped upward into a service hatch. Adrian forced it open, the hinges groaning. Cool night air rushed in. Beyond the hatch stretched another field, this one dotted with the dark hulks of abandoned freight cars.
They climbed out, gasping. The wind carried the smell of oil and iron. Somewhere nearby, an owl called, startlingly loud. Adrian limped to the edge of the embankment and scanned the horizon.
“They’ll sweep this area by dawn,” he said. “We head north.”
“Toward what?”
“Old train depot. Maybe supplies. Maybe a roof.”
He started walking. Nina followed, the case still clutched to her chest. The night pressed close, heavy with unspoken fear. Every few steps, she checked the darkness behind them, half expecting flashlights to bloom again.
“Why didn’t you kill Ferenc?” she asked finally.
Adrian didn’t look back. “Because once you start killing everyone who betrays you, there’s no one left.”
She absorbed the answer in silence. It sounded less like mercy than exhaustion.
They reached the depot near midnight. The building was a long, low hangar, its roof half caved in. Graffiti covered the walls; glass crunched beneath their feet as they slipped through a broken doorway.
Inside, the air smelled of dust and rain. Moonlight fell through holes in the ceiling, catching the rails like threads of steel. Adrian sank to the floor against a concrete pillar, breathing hard.
“Sit,” he said. “If we keep running, we’ll make more noise than progress.”
Nina dropped beside him, heartbeat still wild. In the half-light, his face looked hollow, but his eyes were bright, alert, calculating.
“They won’t stop,” she said.
“They never do.”
“Then why keep fighting?”
He looked at her, and for a moment the hardness cracked. “Because I don’t know how not to.”
The silence that followed was thin, fragile. She leaned her head back against the cold wall, listening to the wind whisper through the broken roof. “You saved me again,” she said.
“I’m getting predictable.”
“You make it sound like a flaw.”
“It is.” His mouth twitched. “Predictable gets you killed.”
She turned toward him. “Then maybe we take turns.”
He looked at her, startled, and then, slowly, smiled—the smallest, realest smile she’d seen on him yet. “Deal.”
They sat like that, side by side, while the storm moved farther east. Her pulse began to slow, matching the rhythm of his breathing. The quiet between them was no longer fear—it was the fragile calm that comes after it.
A sudden crack split the air outside. Not thunder.
Adrian was on his feet before the echo died. “They found the car,” he said. “Gunshot on the fuel tank.”
Nina’s stomach dropped. “How close?”
“Too close.”
He grabbed her hand, pulling her toward the far side of the depot where the rails vanished into trees. “They’ll expect us to run for the road. We take the tracks.”
“The tracks?”
“They lead east,” he said. “Everything leads east.”
They ran again, feet clattering over metal. The moon broke free of the clouds, lighting their path in silver. Behind them, distant shouts rose, carried by the wind.
Nina didn’t look back. She just held on tighter and followed the sound of his breathing.
When they reached the end of the line, Adrian stopped. Ahead lay open fields shimmering with fog. He turned to her, eyes catching the faint light. “We’ll make for the hills.”
She nodded, breathless. “And then?”
“Then we disappear again.”
He looked down at her hand still in his, and instead of letting go, he tightened his grip. “You ready?”
She was shaking, terrified, alive. “Always,” she said.
They stepped off the tracks together, swallowed by mist.