Page 153 of Fractured Loyalties

“Then we go back,” I say. “And you’re coming with me.”

He smiles, slow and knowing. Like he expected that answer all along.

And this time, I don’t look back.

The corridor that leads out is colder than the one we came from. Not temperature-wise. Something else. The air feels stripped—emptied of noise, of warmth, of anything but purpose. My steps echo against steel-paneled floors that weren’t made for foot traffic. This is no hallway. It’s a vein—one meant for secrets to pass through undisturbed.

He walks ahead of me now. No more sideways glances. No more cryptic lines. Just his back straight, his hands open by his sides like he’s done being clever. I don’t buy it. But I follow anyway.

“I know a shortcut,” he says without turning.

“If this is where you slit my throat, at least pick a cleaner wall.”

That earns me a laugh. “You’re more valuable walking.”

I don’t ask if that’s meant as comfort.

The shortcut isn’t through the main door. It’s through a narrow seam in the wall I didn’t see until he pressed a coded panel near the floor. The whole thing shifts inward with a quiet hydraulic hiss. He ducks through first. I follow.

We enter a tight corridor that smells like old walls. The light is low, with red emergency stripes marking the floor. The hum of servers fades behind us.

"Where does this go?" I ask.

"Deeper. Then sideways. Then out. This facility's a maze. Most people who wander it don’t come back out the same. If they come out at all."

We move fast. Not running, but not slow either. Every turn is too smooth to be chance. Every few steps, a different passage breaks off—dark, narrow veins disappearing into the unknown. I glance at them, but Kinley keeps to one precise path.

"You're sure this leads to Elias?" I ask.

"It connects," he says. "Eventually. Think of it like a pressure system—Elias went in deeper. We’re coming at it from the underside. It'll converge. Just not gently."

I don't like the sound of that. But I don’t stop.

The next hatch opens into a chamber not unlike the one we left—but older, colder, and it seems to be built for more than escape.

In the center is a transport. Compact. Black. Military design. Its engine already hums low.

Kinley steps up beside me now.

We climb in. The seats mold around us like memory foam laced with control. Kinley inputs something on the dash. The screen flickers.

Then the floor beneath us vibrates. The chamber slides open to reveal a vertical launch tunnel—tight, metallic, coiled with hydraulic rail.

The vehicle jolts, then begins to climb.

Suddenly, I realize we’re not aboveground. We’re somewhere beneath it all—buried in a facility so dense it folds in on itself.

As the ascent builds, the walls blur. The pressure shifts in my ears.

Kinley says nothing. Neither do I.

Until the chamber below fades and light breaks above.

Chapter 26 – Elias - No Clean Exits

I taste the explosion before I hear it.

Copper, grit, ozone. It shivers along my teeth a split second before the roar punches through the chamber above. The vent seals slam down. Dust rains from the cross-beams. My hand goes to the sidearm I already holstered, but I don’t draw. Not yet. I’m not here to fight. Not in this corridor.