Keira crawled toward the control panel.
“We’ve lost primary power.”
Roman drew a pistol.
Mara grabbed his wrist.
“If you fire inside a sealed maintenance tunnel, the ricochet could hit anyone.”
“They are already firing.”
“They don’t know where we are seated.”
A bullet tore through the upper window.
Glass fell across Roman’s shoulder.
He pulled Mara behind the steel table.
“Do you have a better idea?”
She looked at the emergency map.
The train stood twenty meters from a service intersection. A faded blue line led toward a stormwater chamber beneath the botanical gardens.
“I need the train’s maintenance controls.”
Keira pointed to the dead console.
“No power.”
“The hydraulic brakes are mechanical.”
Mara crawled forward.
Roman caught the back of his jacket, still wrapped around her.
“Where are you going?”
“To release the rear coupling.”
“The attackers are behind us.”
“Exactly.”
She found the emergency lever beside the damaged door.
Darius appeared through the smoke.
“We have eight people in the rear car.”
“Move them forward,” Mara said. “Then disconnect it.”
Understanding flashed across his face.
“The tunnel slopes south.”
Roman looked from the map to Mara.
“You want to send the empty carriage backward.”
“The attackers blocked the junction with vehicles. A thirty-ton railway car will negotiate more effectively than we can.”
Darius smiled for the first time.
“I like the dead engineer.”
Roman fired through the broken window, forcing the attackers behind cover.
“Move everyone forward!”
The crew crossed between the carriages while bullets struck the doors.
Mara knelt beside the manual coupling release.
The lever refused to move.
“It’s rusted,” she said.
Darius handed her a metal bar.
She wedged it beneath the handle.
Roman crouched beside her.
“On three.”
“You have an injured shoulder.”
“I have another one.”
Together they forced the lever down.
The coupling separated with a violent crack.
The empty carriage began rolling backward.
At first it moved slowly.
Then the slope took it.
Gunfire stopped.
Someone shouted in the darkness.
The carriage gathered speed and vanished around the curve.
Several seconds later, metal collided with metal.
The impact shook dust from the tunnel ceiling.
Keira restored auxiliary power.
The train moved north.
Roman sat on the floor beside Mara, breathing hard.
Blood darkened his sleeve where the broken glass had cut him.
“You are hurt,” she said.
“It is superficial.”
“That is what men say when they want women to stop asking questions.”
“What do women say?”
“We say, ‘Sit down before you make it worse.’”
“I am already sitting.”
“Then for once, you are following instructions.”
Darius laughed from the doorway.
Roman gave him a look.
Darius immediately became interested in checking his weapon.
Mara opened the medical kit and cleaned the cut.
Roman watched her hands.
“You did not hesitate,” he said.
“I knew the train.”
“You had never seen it before.”
“I knew the system. Weight, gradient, mechanical brakes.”
“You trusted the calculation.”
“I trust numbers more than people.”
“Numbers are created by people.”
“Yes. But numbers do not ask to be forgiven for what they meant.”
Roman’s expression changed almost imperceptibly.
“Who knew our route?” she asked.
“Everyone aboard.”
“Did Lucian discover the tunnel by tracing the phone?”
“The signal ended at the theater.”
“Then one of your people told him.”
Silence spread through the carriage.
Darius slowly turned.
Roman looked toward the front, where Keira and six members of his crew worked beneath emergency lights.
“No one joined us after the theater,” Mara continued. “No one left. The attackers knew which junction to block and which direction we would travel.”
Darius lowered his voice.
“She is right.”
Roman stood.
The warmth disappeared from his face.
“Seal all external communications.”
Keira’s fingers froze over her keyboard.
“Already done.”
“Then identify every signal sent during the last thirty minutes.”
The train continued toward the lighthouse while distrust moved through it like smoke.
Bellweather Lighthouse rose from a black peninsula beyond the northern edge of Vesper Bay.
The tower had not guided ships in decades. Modern vessels used satellite navigation, and tourists preferred the newer observation platform on the opposite cliff. The old station remained sealed behind iron gates and warning signs about unstable ground.
Mara knew a different entrance.
They crossed the beach at low tide and climbed through a fissure beneath the cliff. Salt water covered the tunnel floor. Roman’s people carried waterproof equipment cases while waves struck the rocks behind them.
At the end of the passage, Mara placed her palm against a corroded metal panel.