Chapter 11 - The Ambush in the Dark
The suited man never even had time to raise his weapon. Miller dropped from the overhead maintenance hatch like a falling anvil, his heavy boot catching the man squarely between the shoulder blades and driving him face-first into the damp concrete floor with a sickening crunch. The suppressed pistol skidded across the wet floor, splashing into the central drainage trough.
"Move!" Miller barked, landing in a crouch and drawing his own weapon to cover the dark recesses of the tunnel ahead. "They have this whole sector boxed off! There's another team coming up from the subway interchange!"
Leo didn't need to be told twice. Carrying Lily, he sprinted past the groaning man in the suit, his sneakers splashing loudly through the shallow water of the drainage trough. His lungs burned, and the heavy throb of his own exhaustion threatened to pull him down to the concrete, but pure terror kept his legs moving.
"Where are we going, Miller?" Leo yelled over the sound of their splashing footsteps echoing down the long subterranean corridor.
"There's an old maintenance rail car on a spur line fifty yards ahead," Miller called back, jogging backward with his gun still raised toward the path they had just escaped. "It runs out to the abandoned railyard near the river. It's our only way out of the grid before the whole district goes into lockdown."
As they rounded a sharp concrete corner, the tunnel opened up into a wider subterranean chamber. Resting on a set of rusted steel tracks was a battered yellow maintenance rail car—an old diesel-powered flatbed with a rusted metal cab and a manual hand-lever ignition.
"Get her inside the cab!" Miller ordered, vaulting over the side railing and landing on the metal floor.
Leo scrambled up after him, sliding Lily onto the dusty bench seat inside the tiny, enclosed cabin. The air inside smelled of old grease, mildew, and stale tobacco.
"Can you make this thing start?" Leo asked, watching the dark tunnel behind them with frantic eyes.
"It runs on an auxiliary battery, but it takes a minute to crank over," Miller muttered, jamming a heavy iron key into the ignition panel and turning it hard. The engine gave a pathetic, wheezing click, followed by a thick plume of black smoke belching from the exhaust pipe on the roof.
From down the dark tunnel behind them came the sound of running boots and sharp, amplified shouts echoing off the curved concrete walls. They were out of time.
"Come on, you piece of junk," Miller hissed, pumping the throttle lever repeatedly as the starter motor whined in protest.
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With a sudden, violent shudder, the diesel engine roared to life, filling the small cabin with a deafening vibration. Miller slammed the gear lever forward into drive, and the rail car lurched violently backward off the blocks, slamming into the heavy iron security gate at the end of the spur line just as flashlights began to pierce the darkness around the corner.
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