Kam hit the pavement hard enough to crack it.

  Steam poured off him in thick, rolling sheets, turning the cold night into a warped mirage. Behind him, the transport hub groaned like a wounded animal — metal twisting, concrete settling, alarms howling in a dozen contradictory tones that layered into chaos.

  Leo stumbled out next, coughing, clutching his wrist display like it was a lifeline. Maya dragged Taylor by the collar of his red puffer, half-carrying, half-hauling him through the drifting smoke.

  For a moment, the street was empty.

  Then the world caught up.

  Phones lifted. Car alarms triggered in a cascading wave. Sirens converged from every direction, distant but closing fast.

  Kam didn't look back at the hub. He didn't need to. He could feel the heat signature collapsing behind him — the building dying in slow motion, structural integrity peeling away layer by layer.

  "Move."

  They moved.

  They cut through an alley, then another, ducking under scaffolding and weaving through construction fencing. The city swallowed them, but not fast enough. Leo kept glancing at his display, panic rising in sharp, clipped breaths.

  "They're rerouting drones. They're triangulating us off residual heat. Kam, you're—"

  "Loud."

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  "Loud is underselling it," Leo snapped. "You're a flare gun in a blackout."

  Taylor groaned weakly. Maya tightened her grip on him.

  "Stay with me. Taylor. Eyes open."

  He blinked once. Slow. Wrong.

  Kam stopped.

  The others nearly crashed into him.

  The alley ahead was quiet — too quiet. A service door sat half-open, light spilling out in a thin, sterile strip. A maintenance corridor. Unmarked. Unmonitored.

  Kam stepped inside.

  The others followed.

  The door hissed shut behind them.

  The noise of the city vanished, replaced by the low hum of industrial ventilation. The corridor stretched ahead in a long, narrow spine of concrete and exposed wiring. Emergency lights flickered in uneven pulses, throwing shadows that refused to stay still.

  Leo checked his display again.

  "No signal. We're off-grid."

  Maya knelt, lowering Taylor gently to the floor. His breathing was shallow, uneven. His pupils didn't track the light.

  "Taylor. Hey. Look at me."

  He didn't.

  Kam crouched beside them. The heat coming off him made the air ripple like summer asphalt.

  Maya didn't flinch.

  "Kam. He needs a hospital."

  "No hospital will take him," Leo said. "Not after what just happened. They'll flag him as contaminated. Or complicit. Or—"

  "Collateral."

  The word hung in the air like a dropped blade.

  Maya looked up at him. "He's not dead."

  Kam didn't answer.

  He pressed two fingers to Taylor's neck. The pulse fluttered under his touch — faint, irregular, fading.

  The corridor lights flickered again.

  Then the ventilation shifted.

  A soft hiss.

  Leo froze. "No. No, no, no—"

  Thin streams of white vapor slipped from the ceiling vents.

  Not smoke.

  Not steam.

  Not accidental.

  Kam inhaled once.

  Metallic. Clean. Wrong.

  "Coolant."

  Maya's eyes widened. "Here? Why here?"

  Leo's display lit up with red warnings. "It's not the building. It's the system. They're flushing the corridor. They're trying to—"

  He stopped.

  He didn't need to finish.

  The gas dropped fast, pooling around their ankles, then climbing.

  Taylor coughed once — a wet, broken sound.

  Maya grabbed him, pulling him upright. "Kam—"

  Kam stood.

  Heat rolled off him in a slow, steady wave. The gas curled away from his legs, refusing to settle near him.

  "It's targeting me."

  "Then we move," Maya said.

  "No," Leo said, voice cracking. "It's not just targeting you. It's reacting to you. It's trying to put you out."

  The gas rose to their knees.

  Breathing became expensive.

  Taylor sagged in Maya's arms.

  Kam looked at the exit at the far end of the corridor — a heavy maintenance door with a manual override.

  He didn't hesitate.

  "Move."

  He stepped forward.

  The gas parted around him like a tide recoiling from heat.

  Maya lifted Taylor. Leo followed, stumbling, coughing, eyes watering.

  Kam didn't look back.

  He pushed toward the door.

  And the system pushed back.