The tunnel sloped down through a crawl of pipes slick with cool condensation. Air rushed somewhere underfoot. Mara Venn did not offer her name at once; she offered speed. Elias scraped his bad hand against the wall, bit down on a curse, and kept after her because losing sight of her now would mean learning the dark by dying in it.

They broke into a taller conduit where coolant lines ran in blue-lit ribs along the ceiling. Fans thudded slow and deep beyond the wall. They passed two sealed junction hatches painted over with old route codes, then angled down another half-flight of ladder slick with condensation before the air changed from wet metal to hot dust and back again. Mara cut left, then dropped through a cargo frame with half the bars stripped out, landing light. Elias hit the same drop badly, one boot skidding, shoulder slamming steel. His vision washed thin around the edges.

She looked back only when he nearly missed the turn after it.

She looked back only when he nearly missed the turn after it. "You always this graceful?"

Elias caught himself on the wall and said, "Only after concussive travel and a partial beating."

She kept moving and said, "That's not an answer a sane person gives."

Elias pushed off the wall and said, "I didn't claim sanity. I asked who tried to take me."

She stopped so fast he nearly walked into her. Algae light climbed the curve of the tunnel wall, green in patches, leaving the rest in dark bands. Water ran in thin lines over old hazard paint. Somewhere close, a relay clicked like teeth.