Sierra

Chapter 2

The rush of the train arriving filled the station, cut off suddenly by a scream and the train screeching to a stop. Cole stood at the edge of the platform, looking down at the area where the suspect in the hood had just disappeared.

There had been no "thunk" of train hitting body. No splatter of blood. There had been a scream, but even now it continued. His head swiveled and landed on a woman beside him, who apparently saw the same thing he did, and was still screaming. The crowd at the platform ignored and shoved past her, emptying the train and refilling, oblivious to the woman's disappearance. It only took a moment for the logic processors to kick in and Cole turned from the platform and looked past the train into the gap between the train and the tunnel. A shadow shifted close to the wall, running away from the platform.

"Stop!" He ran to the gate and grabbed the handle to yank it open. It rattled in resistance and he shoved his hand against the scanner beside the handle. It took half a second to beep in approval before he yanked it open and took off down the stairs to the graveled service path.

He pulled the gun from his side and leveled it at the dark figure barely discernible against the black tunnel walls. Triggered by his gun being pulled, targeting lines appeared on his display and the woman's form outlined in red. The lines shifted bouncing from her to random shapes on the wall, thrown off by the darkness of the tunnel. 

"Stop! You are under arrest!" Not to his surprise, the woman didn't stop or even look back. He wasn't in a crowd and didn't have to worry about collateral damage,  so despite the targeting lines not holding on her, he fired. The sound of gunfire cracked through the tunnel and echoed off the walls, eliciting more screams from the platform behind him. He left them behind as he took off down the gravel path behind her.

"Central, this is C-zero-one-three in pursuit from Undercity Lao Street Station." Cole said into his helmet's intercom as he ran behind her into the dark tunnel. His visor switched to night vision and green flooded his vision. 

"This is Central. What direction is the pursuit? We have units on Han and 76th," a robotic voice responded in his ear.

"Not on street level. We are in the tunnels -" he paused, searching his database for a second to figure out what station was ahead of them, -"heading west towards Darrington Place Station. I repeat, target is in the tunnel heading west towards Darrington."

The intercom beeped and then cut out, silent for a long second before coming back.

"Units A-zero-seven-two and G-one-two-four are heading towards Lao Street and Darrington Place for backup, seven and ten minutes out."

"Copy," he replied and then picked up his pace to try and close the distance between them.

Her pace was a steady, practiced run, just fast enough to keep distance between them, but not enough to increase it. Either way, Darrington was at least three miles, she couldn't make it there in under ten minutes before his backup arrived.

A service beam light the tunnel every fifty feet or so and he wondered how she made it along the dark track so easily. He could see from her dark green form against his night vision that she was running her hand along the wall as she went. The Undercity train tunnels had long been handed over to automation and very little human servicing was needed. He doubted any humans had been here in weeks, but yet the woman seemed familiar with the dips in the ground as the gravel turned to dirt beneath their feet.

The percentage of risk that she was terrorist had dropped dramatically once she had chosen to run and added more to the probability that she worked for Invictus. A courior of illegal goods and information that plagued the city. The company made profit by defying the laws, allowing corporations and criminals to skirt the rules and smuggle illegal goods through the city. Hiding just below the watchful eye of the city and blending with the populace. Too scattered to pin down, but organized enough to evade capture. Bringing her in could be essential to bringing down their organization.

He was closing the distance between them, bringing her into range as the targeting lines settled on her red-rimmed form. She cast a glance over her shoulder and her face was light by a bright light. She dodged left,  jumping across the electric tracks. He moved to follow her, but motion in the corner of his vision made his HUD flash yellow and his computer jerked him back.

The train cut between them. She disappeared behind it and he was left standing in the roar of it. It only took 3 seconds for the high-speed train to pass, but the damage was done. She was gone.

Now with the immediate danger gone, his computer let him leap across the track to the area where he lost her. He glanced both ways, but she wasn't in the tunnel. She should still be visible. At her pace, she couldn't have disappeared that quickly. Then he saw it. In the wall a few feet down was a doorway to another tunnel. Human height and empty and gaping dark with abandonment. In the distance he heard her footsteps echoing down it, getting further away.

"Central this is C-zero-one-three. Target is in an abandon service tunnel half a mile from Lao Station." He paused as the intercom beeped and then clicked off. No response. "Central this is C-zero-one-three. Come in." Again it beeped and clicked. He had to be too far underground for the radio to be working.

Cole hesitated and glanced back the way they came. The curve in the tunnel blocked his view back to the platform. Backup would still be five minutes away. The service tunnel could lead anywhere and if he waited any longer he was sure to lose her. He glanced back over his shoulder once more before ducking into the tunnel and taking off after her.

The service tunnel felt suffocatingly small after the train tunnel they had exited from. Pipes and wires ran the walls and ceiling, with the sound of water and coolant rushing through them. At times, he had to turn sideways to fit through areas with space taken up by larger pipes running from floor to ceiling. Cole holstered the gun again so he could pull himself through the space. He knew her smaller size would slide right through, while his body armor slowed him down by catching on the pipes as shimmied past them.

The tunnel was pitch black. Even to his night vision, the increasing loss of light meant the green glow lessened to a dark green filter. Only the echoing sound of her footfalls lead him forward.

After a moment though, he realized there had to a be a lighting system available. Even if humans rarely came down here, they had to have light to work. He glanced up and noted service light bulbs hanging from wires that looped from the ceiling. He stopped and reached up to grab one, yanking the bulb from its wire. Electricity from his own battery pack surged into it and the tunnel suddenly blew out bright white.

His night vision switched off but her human eyes didn't adjust as quickly apparently. She was standing down the tunnel closer than he expected, only a hundred feet away feet, blinking blindly. 

Her hood had been pushed down at some point and now revealed dark hair, pulled into a ponytail. Her hand was held above her eyes, blocking the light and then she dropped it and they made eye contact. Or, well, helmet to eye contact.

He grabbed for the gun at his side. Her eyes widened as she saw him. He raised his gun and at the same moment she pushed herself to the wall, ducking behind a pipe between them as a shot cracked through the tunnel, followed shortly by the ping of it hitting metal and a hiss of steam. Steam filled the corridor, fogging his mask. Cole dropped his hand and darkness swallowed the tunnel again.