RIVAL’S POV
The duct groaned under our weight, every movement echoing like a gunshot. My knees scraped metal, my palms were slick, but I kept crawling, following the faint push of stale air ahead.
Thomas’s breathing was uneven behind me — too loud, too fast. The kind of panic sound that gets you killed.
“Quiet,” I hissed over my shoulder.
He nodded but didn’t slow his breath.
The narrow tunnel twisted hard to the right, then sloped downward. I could feel the vibration in the steel — boots pounding somewhere below. Whoever they sent in here wasn’t wandering. They were hunting.
A faint glow appeared ahead, leaking through the seams of a vent cover. Daylight? No. Too dull. Facility lights — yellowed, flickering.
I reached the grate and pressed my eye to the gap.
Empty hallway. Long, i
