Chapter3
528 Words
Breaks in the crew
The morning hit hard.
Sirens wailed from distances. Another raid. Another slum block crushed. Life in New Lagos was like that. Loud, fast, and always running out of time.
Zara avoided eye contact with Usman. She still hadn’t told him about Tiger, or the message she received, even the file with her name on it. The secret sat in her stomach like a bag of cement.
Mara leaned in as they cleaned the gear.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
Zara forced a smile. “Yeah. Just tired.”
Mara looked at her closely, then shrugged. “Weird vibe in the air today.”
Outside the hideout…
Usman stood with Kenny, scanning the slum walls where bounty posters were flickering.
One poster caught his eye: his own face.
Reward: 300,000 creds.
“Alive or dead.”
“Damn,” Kenny whispered. “That’s real money.”
Usman clenched his jaw.
“They know we have hit the vault. We have to leave.”
“Where?”
Usman looked toward the city center. “To the underground. Sewer hub. No signals. No scans.”
Kenny sighed. “Zara won’t like the smell.”
Usman didn’t laugh.
Back inside…
The group gathered.
“We’re leaving tonight,” Usman ordered. Pack light. Burn everything we can’t carry.”
“Why?” Mara asked.
He pointed to the poster on the wall. Silence fell.
“But… we’ve lived here for years,” Zara said.
“They know who we are now,” Usman said. “And they’ll send someone to come for us.”
That night…
They moved fast through the backstreet. Carrying gear. Covering tracks.
Suddenly—a BOOM. A loud explosion behind them. Flames shot into the sky.
“Our hideout—” Mara gasped.
Usman turned. His face darkened.
“They found it. Someone told them.”
Zara’s heart dropped.
She hadn’t told Tiger about their movement.
But has someone else done that already?
Or was Tiger lying? Playing both sides?
As they escape down into the old sewers, Usman pauses at a vent. He pulls something from his pocket.
A tiny black cube.
Zara recognizes it—it’s a rebel particle. The kind Tiger gave her.
Usman looks at her.
“Funny thing. I found this near where you ‘cleared your head’ last night.”
Zara freezes.
“You spying on me now?”
“No,” Usman says. “I’m watching everyone,"because someone’s playing a game. And I don’t lose.”
Zara feels her throat close up. Guilt. Fear. Shame. But also anger.
“I didn’t sell us out.”
“I didn’t say you did.”
“But you think it.”
Usman steps back. “I think you’re scared. And scared people make bad choices.”
He walks away.
Mara gives Zara a quick hug, but it feels colder than usual.
Zara sat alone in the sewer tunnel, while the others were asleep later that night.
She took out the rebel particle and crushed it in her hand. Glass, sparks and silence.
“I’m not your weapon,” she whispers.
But behind her, in the shadows, someone was watching.
- Writer
