Location: Sublevel Tunnels — Beneath Safehouse X-91
Time: 3:12 AM
Everything smelled like blood and rust.
Vashti's breath came in gasps as they sprinted through the narrow, crumbling corridors beneath the safehouse. Pipes hissed overhead. Water dripped from the cracked ceiling. The ground sloped downward like a spiral into the earth's forgotten stomach.
Arya gritted her teeth, limping but keeping up.
"This tunnel connects to the abandoned ambulance shaft under Mirage Facility," she said between breaths. "It's not on any current map. They won't follow us."
Shabd looked at Vashti. "Unless they already know we're going there."
Vashti didn't slow.
"Then we make them regret it."
---
Flashlight Beam – 3:29 AM
They stopped when the tunnel split.
One path led into pitch blackness.
The other… glowed faintly red.
Shabd raised an eyebrow. "We follow the creepy horror lighting, or we go blind?"
Arya checked her makeshift scanner. "The red path runs straight beneath Mirage's central lab. The black one ends at a sealed gate. That's where I say we go."
Vashti didn't move.
Instead, she whispered, "We split."
Shabd froze. "No."
Arya nodded slowly. "She's right. If one of us gets caught, the others still have a chance."
Shabd clenched his fists. "Every time we split, we lose someone."
Vashti turned to him, reached up, and gently touched his jaw.
> "Then don't lose me this time."
Before he could stop her, she pressed something into his palm.
A tiny silver V pendant.
"Find me again."
And then she ran—alone—into the red-lit tunnel.
---
Alone – Red Tunnel – 3:38 AM
The further she walked, the hotter it got.
Her mind buzzed with Shabd's voice, Arya's fears, her father's distant warnings, her mother's soft prayers.
Then suddenly—
Silence.
A room opened up in front of her, hidden beneath layers of rock and wire. Inside, dusty surgical beds and shattered vials littered the floor.
She stepped in. Lights flickered on.
> "WELCOME BACK, SUBJECT V."
Vashti froze.
A camera rotated toward her.
> "We knew you'd come. The question is… did you come alone?"
Her heart dropped.
They'd been watching.
---
Meanwhile — Black Tunnel – With Shabd and Arya
Shabd's pendant began to vibrate.
He stopped in his tracks.
Arya turned. "What is it?"
He opened his hand. The V pendant blinked with a red light.
A tracker.
"She planned it," Shabd whispered. "She let herself get taken."
Arya's eyes went wide.
"She's not escaping Mirage," Shabd said, voice tight.
"She's infiltrating it."
--