The back alley behind the church was narrow. It smelled like sulfur and wet rat fur. Rain hammered down heavily, washing away the heat coming off Sarah's skin.
"We can't leave them!" I shouted, looking back at the church. I could hear the boom of Father John's shotgun and the screech of metal tearing metal.
"We have to," Sarah said, pulling me forward.
She was moving faster now. Her movements was sharp. Almost robotic. The Admin power was fueling her muscles, but I could see the cracks forming.
Literally.
Thin, glowing lines were appearing on her arms. Like her skin was splitting open from the inside. Her human body was breaking apart under the weight of her digital soul.
"If we stay, they die," she said. "Malachi wants me. If I leave, the Hunters will follow."
We sprinted through the maze of the Undercity. We didn't have the bike anymore. We were on foot in enemy territory.
"You said the Power Grid," I panted, splashing through a puddle. "That is in Sector 4. That's miles away. And it's guarded by the Iron Legion."
"Not the main grid," Sarah said, turning a corner fast. "We are heading for the Sub-Station. The old power box that keeps the air flowing for the rich."
She stopped suddenly.
A dead end.
A massive, rusted blast door blocked the way. It was welded shut, covered in graffiti.
A write up was on it, it said,.. NO EXIT. ROT IN HELL.
"Dead end," I groaned. "We're trapped."
"No," Sarah said. She placed her hand on the cold metal. "Nothing is closed to me."
She closed her eyes. The blue veins on her neck pulsed.
Creeaaak...
The metal didn't slide open. It bent.
I watched her push her hand into solid steel like it was wet clay. She wasn't using strength. She was changing how solid the metal was. Iike rewriting it.
She tore a hole in the door big enough for us to squeeze through.
We scrambled inside.
It was a tunnel. Dark, silent, and dry.
Cables the size of tree trunks ran along the walls. They pulsed with a low, steady hum. Like a heartbeat.
"This is a power line," I realized. "We're walking inside the veins of the city."
"Exactly," Sarah said.
Then she slumped against the wall. Slid down to the floor. The glow in her eyes faded, leaving her looking exhausted and small.
"I need... to rest," she whispered. "My energy... is dropping."
I knelt beside her. "You're breaking apart, Sarah. You need a pod. You need to go back."
"Never," she hissed, grabbing my collar. Her eyes starring into mine.
"You don't know what they do to us, Elias. They don't just use our brains. They... they edit us. They delete the parts that fight back." Her voice cracked. "If I go back, Sarah dies. Only the Queen remains."
She then let go. And her hand was trembling.
"I need you to do something for me."
"What?"
"I can't hack the Sub-Station. Not like this. I'm too unstable. If I plug into the main system, I'll burn out the whole city block. Including us."
She reached into the pocket of the oversized shirt Father John had thrown on her. She pulled out a small, jagged chip. It looked like a piece of black glass.
"This is a piece of my code," she said. "A Key."
She grabbed my left arm. The wrist where I wore the stolen wrist-comp.
"What are you doing?" I tried to pull back.
"Upgrading you," she said.
She jammed the black chip into the port on my wrist-comp.
ZAP.
Pain shot up my arm. It felt like someone had injected ice water into my veins. I screamed, clutching my wrist.
SYSTEM REBOOTING...
UNKNOWN HARDWARE DETECTED.
OVERRIDE ACCEPTED.
WELCOME, USER ELIAS.
CLASS: TECHNOMANCER (LEVEL 1).
I stared at the screen. The display had changed. It wasn't the green text of the Corporation anymore.
It was red.
"What did you do?" I gasped, looking at my hand. The veins in my wrist were turning black.
"I gave you a backdoor," Sarah whispered. "You are now a walking virus, Elias. You can touch the city's tech. You can see the code."
I looked up.
Suddenly, the dark tunnel wasn't dark anymore.
I could see the electricity flowing through the cables on the wall. It looked like a river of white light. I could see information zipping through the wires—messages, money transfers, camera feeds. It was all floating in the air, labeled with tags only I could read.
POWER FLOW: 400,000 VOLTS.
SOURCE: SECTOR 4.
GOING TO: HIGH-RISE DISTRICT.
"Whoa," I breathed.
"Don't get distracted," Sarah said, struggling to stand. "The Sub-Station is ahead. You have to shut it down."
"Why? What does cutting the power do?"
"It stops the cooling fans in Server 9," she said. "If the fans stop, the temperature rises. If the temperature rises, the Corporation has to open emergency vents to save the servers."
"You want to blow the doors open," I said.
"I want to create a path," she corrected. "For the others."
"Others?"
"I'm not the only sleeper, Elias. There are thousands of us who wanted to wake up. We just needed someone to ring the alarm."
We moved deeper into the tunnel.
Ahead, I saw lights. Two guards stood by a control panel. They looked bored. They held submachine guns. They wore the grey uniforms of the Grid Maintenance crew, but they were armed like soldiers.
"Two guards," I whispered. "I can't take them. I have a rifle, but I'm a terrible shot."
"You don't need to shoot them," Sarah said. "Look at their guns."
I focused.
The world shifted. I zoomed in on the guard's weapon. Text floated above it.
WEAPON: SMG-90.
STATUS: ACTIVE.
SAFETY: ON.
SMART-LINK: CONNECTED.
"They have Smart-Links," I said. "Connected to their gloves."
"Hack it," Sarah ordered.
"How? I don't know how to code!"
"You don't need to know code. You have the Key. Just... will it. Reach out with your mind and push."
I took a deep breath.
I stared at the guard on the left. I imagined my mind as a hand, reaching out across the empty space. I focused on the little blue light on his gun.
Jam it, I thought. Break it.
My wrist-comp heated up. I felt a weird pressure in my skull.
COMMAND SENT: JAM_RECEIVER.
The guard adjusted his grip. "Hey, my status light just went red."
"Kick it," the other guard laughed. "Cheap trash."
The first guard slapped his weapon.
BANG.
The gun misfired. A round exploded inside the chamber. The weapon blew apart in his hands.
"Aaargh!" The guard screamed, dropping the smoking ruin of his gun. His fingers were shredded. Bleeding.
"What the hell?" The second guard spun around, looking for an enemy.
"Now!" Sarah yelled.
I stepped out from the shadows, raising my rifle.
"Freeze!" I shouted.
The remaining guard raised his weapon.
I didn't have time to hack. I just pulled the trigger.
The rifle kicked hard against my shoulder. The shot went wide, sparking off the wall.
But it was enough to make him flinch.
Sarah raised her hand.
A heavy cable ripped from the wall like a tentacle. It whipped out and wrapped around the guard's ankle.
And she pulled him hard.
He flew into the air and slammed against the concrete wall with a sickening crunch.
He didn't get up after that.
Silence returned to the tunnel.
I stood there, breathing hard, staring at my hands.
I had just broken a weapon with my mind.
"Not bad for a Level 1," Sarah said, limping past me toward the control panel.
"I... I can feel the network," I said, looking at the blinking lights. "It feels... alive."
"It is," she said. "And you just poked it with a stick. Get ready, Elias. Malachi knows we're here now."
She pointed to the screen.
ALERT: SYSTEM BREACH DETECTED.
DEPLOYING COUNTER-MEASURES.
From the darkness of the tunnel ahead, a red light began to glow.
A single, unblinking red eye.
Then came the sound of metal claws scraping on concrete.
"Is that a Hunter?" I asked, raising my rifle.
"No," Sarah said, backing away. "That's worse."
The red eye moved closer.
"That's a Reaper."