The soft hum of Nara's laptop suddenly drowned out as the iron doors of the train car scraped slowly open. Deep within the damp, subterranean darkness of the underground rail tunnel, a human silhouette cast a faint shadow under the pale glow of the emergency lights.

Gilang instantly yanked Renata behind his back while his right hand smoothly drew the pure-salt-lined short sword from its back sheath. The blade hissed to life, casting a bluish-white glare that cut through the heavy gloom of night.

"Don't move, or your head comes off your neck!" Gilang snapped sharply, his voice echoing inside the cramped iron carriage.

The figure in the doorway raised both hands slowly, stepping forward into the monitor's beam. The man wore a faded parachute jacket with a hoodie shadowing half his face. The moment the emergency lamp hit his features, Rania's eyes widened in sheer shock.

"Miko...?" Rania whispered in disbelief, her hands dropping from her face.

The man called Miko winced awkwardly, offering a tight, apologetic smile as he wiped the sweat from his temples. He was the street informant who, two days ago, had sold them the utility tunnel maps.

"Hey, hey, take it easy, folks! Don't greet me with a glowing sword like that. I'm not a cybrid or an Ant Corp hitman," Miko blurted out quickly, his voice trembling with nerves.

"Then what are you doing in the middle of the damn night inside a secluded railcar, Miko?" Renata demanded coldly, stepping out from behind Gilang with an eagle-sharp gaze. "How did you find our exact coordinates unless you were the one leading the trail straight here?"

Miko avoided Renata's stare, swallowing hard. "I... I just happened to pass by, Madam Director. Accidentally saw the lights on in this car..."

"Accidentally?" Nara snorted loudly, springing from her chair and slamming her tablet down onto the desk. She pointed aggressively at the flashing tracking graph. "The local IP pinging our server came from a short-range signal transmitter! And that device just went live right inside your pants pocket, Miko!"

Miko jolted, his face draining of color instantly. He patted down his pockets in a blind panic, but it was already far too late.

Gilang sneered cynically, his eyes narrowing with cold fury. "Well, well... street rats turn out to be worth a lot more than the gold coin I tossed you. What's Ant Corp paying for our heads, Miko? Five million? Ten?"

"I didn't have a choice, Gilang!" Miko screamed hysterically, cornered with nowhere left to run. He stumbled backward until his spine slammed against the metal wall of the railcar. "They took my family hostage! Ant Corp's security squad tracked me down this afternoon and told me if I didn't give up your hideout, they'd dump my kids into Sector 1's cyber-acid vats! I was forced into it!"

"And by doing that, you sacrificed all our lives?!" Rania yelled, her voice trembling, tears spilling over from sheer, crushing disappointment. "We trusted you, Miko! We thought of you as a friend!"

"I'm sorry, Rania... I'm so sorry..." Miko sobbed hopelessly.

Yet, before anyone could fire off another word, a chaotic stampede of heavy, armed footsteps suddenly reverberated from the tunnel outside.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

"Damn it! They're here!" Nara shrieked in panic, pointing at the scanner display which had transformed into a sea of red dots. "There are dozens of enforcement troops! We're pinched from both ends of the track!"

Miko's eyes bulged in terror as black-uniformed silhouettes materialized at the end of the line. "N-no... they said they wouldn't strike until I—"

"Corporate lies are always the same, Miko. To them, you're nothing more than a disposable pawn," Renata said coldly. Without wasting a breath, the woman whipped her head toward Gilang. "We don't have time for betrayal drama. The front doors are already laser-cut. We have to blow the emergency left wall of the railcar straight into the old maintenance tunnels!"

"Do it now!" Gilang ordered.

Bang!

The first plasma-energy blast slammed into the exterior iron hull of the railcar, unleashing a blinding shower of sparks. Thick smoke billowed instantly into the cramped interior. Ant Corp’s security forces opened up with unyielding, blind suppressive fire.

"Run! Out through the blown wall!" Gilang shouted, shoving Rania and Nara ahead of him to scramble through the torn metal belly of the carriage.

A panicked Miko tried to scramble out right behind them. But from the forward corridor, a searing energy round lanced straight through the railcar window, punching cleanly through Miko's chest.

The traitor let out a choked gasp, fresh blood spraying from his lips before he collapsed heavily onto a pile of iron rail ties, dead instantly before he could even beg for mercy.

"Miko!" Rania cried hysterically from outside the railcar, reaching back to help, but Nara caught her arm in a vice grip and yanked her away.

"Don't look, Rania! If we stay here, we're joining him!" Nara screamed in panic amid the intensifying hail of plasma fire.

Gilang and Renata formed a final line of defense. Gilang swung his salt sword, deflecting minor energy bolts heading their way, while Renata returned suppressive fire with high-precision shots toward the enemy spotlights in the distance.

"Gilang, this car's going to collapse! The under-track structure is unstable from the blast!" Renata yelled over the roar of gunfire, grabbing Gilang's arm to drag him out through the hull breach after Nara and Rania.

"Move!" Gilang barked.

The four of them sprinted furiously down the dark, ancient tunnel, guided only by the beam of Nara's tablet flashlight. Behind them, the structural collapse of the blasted train car echoed deafeningly, kicking up shockwaves of dust and gravel that chased their footsteps.

"This way! Cut across to the old sector utility emergency stairs!" Renata commanded, taking point in the center pack.

Then, disaster struck in a matter of seconds.

Just as they lunged toward the emergency stairwell, a secondary explosion from the rear triggered a catastrophic structural failure in the tunnel ceiling. Massive concrete blocks and heavy rubble rained down from above, turning their escape route into a deathtrap.

Boom!

A gigantic slab of concrete crashed right down the middle of the tunnel, splitting their path apart in an instant.

"Argh!" Rania choked out.

"Rania!" Gilang's eyes widened in horror.

The falling debris forced Rania onto the opposite side of the barrier from Gilang, Renata, and Nara. Old iron girders and a mound of smoking hot rubble now blocked the path between them, leaving Rania completely isolated on the far side while heavy footsteps from Ant Corp troops closed in rapidly from the end of the girl's corridor.

"Boss! Madam Renata!" Rania sobbed in terror from behind the concrete crack, tears streaming down her face as she saw armed silhouettes closing in on her position. "I can't get through! The path's blocked!"

"Rania, don't move from there!" Gilang panicked. He lunged forward, shoving his bare hands against the scalding concrete slab, ignoring the skin of his palms blistering and bleeding. "Damn it... it's too heavy!"

"Gilang, don't force it! The structure's going to cave completely!" Renata grabbed Gilang's shoulder, stopping him from being crushed by secondary collapses. "If you try lifting that now, the whole ceiling's coming down on both of us!"

"I'm not leaving her alone out there, Renata!" Gilang snapped, his eyes bloodshot with rage and panic.

Across the rubble, a tactical flashlight beam from an Ant Corp helmet swept across Rania's trembling face. A bulky soldier raised his rifle, preparing to clamp a hand onto the young girl's shoulder.

Seeing that, Gilang made a split-second decision. He threw all mathematical odds and personal safety out the window.

"Nara, hold this!" Gilang shoved his computer bag into Nara's arms, then recklessly vaulted up onto the burning mound of concrete debris.

"Lang! Are you out of your mind?!" Nara shrieked hysterically.

Gilang ignored her. Relying on every ounce of surviving strength and lightning-fast reflexes from his street-freelancer days, Gilang cleared the narrow gap of the concrete barrier in the final microsecond before the ceiling above collapsed entirely.

Boom!

Thick dust choked the air. At that exact moment, just as the corporate soldier's weapon barrel brushed Rania, Gilang lunged forward and smashed the hilt of his salt sword directly into the soldier's helmet, sending him crashing down unconscious.

Gilang yanked Rania's hand, pulling her tight against his chest, and dove backward into the deeper, darker side-tunnel—slipping away just as a fresh wave of hunters swarmed the spot where they had stood a second before.

Nara and Renata, trapped on the opposite side, stared anxiously into the dark crevice where Gilang and Rania had vanished.

"Gilang! Rania!" Renata called out, her voice raspy with dread.

From deep within the dark side-tunnel, Gilang's heavy, ragged breathing echoed back in response, delivering a wave of relief amid the suffocating smoke.

"We're... we're safe! Head to the extraction point, don't stop!" Gilang shouted from the dark, keeping Rania cradled safely as the sound of pursuing enemies pressed hard on their heels.