Everyone okay?

Lyra felt her pulse spike. The voice was unfamiliar, but that clipped, authoritative tone screamed corporate security. They'd been found.

Jax hissed, "Time to go. Now."

Eris slung her backpack on, yanking the data shard from her tablet and pocketing it securely. Lyra drew her pistol, her mind racing. They could try to fight, but cornered in a basement with likely a full strike team above... no, they had to flee.

"This way!" Eris whispered, pointing toward the far end of the platform. Beyond a row of rusted vending machines was a tunnel entrance marked with a maintenance sign. "Service tunnels connect to the street a block over."

Another shout from above: "Spread out! Check every corner." Boots on concrete—multiple sets, moving into the station.

Lyra nodded and grabbed Eris's arm, leading her toward the tunnel entrance. Jax kept behind them, covering with pistol in one hand and a compact SMG in the other.

As they slipped into the tunnel's mouth, a flashlight beam cut down the stairwell behind them. "There! On the platform!" a voice barked.

A split-second later, gunfire erupted, bullets sparking off the metal pillars and sending chips of concrete flying. They dove into the darkness of the tunnel as muzzle flashes strobed behind them.

Lyra's heart thundered in her ears. In the strobing light she caught a glimpse of Jax turning, tossing a small spherical device back toward their pursuers. "Flashbang!" he yelled, yanking Lyra and Eris further around the tunnel bend.

A deafening bang and blinding white light filled the station behind them. Shouts of confusion echoed.

"Go!" Jax urged, voice hard. The three of them sprinted down the service tunnel, shadows dancing in the flicker of failing fluorescent strips overhead.

Lyra's legs screamed in pain but adrenaline drove her on. The tunnel underfoot was slick and cluttered with old cables. Eris nearly tripped, but Lyra steadied her. They ran deeper into the old maintenance passage, each breath ragged.

Behind them, recovering voices hollered, and the pounding of boots resumed. But the echoes made it hard to tell how far back the security team was. Lyra knew only that they couldn't slow down.

A metal door loomed on the left wall ahead, marked with a faint Exit sign. "Stairs up to street," Eris gasped out between breaths.

Jax reached it first and slammed into the door with his shoulder. It held firm—chained from outside or rusted shut. He snarled and smashed into it again. Metal creaked but didn't give.

Lyra could hear the boots drawing closer. Any second now the security team would round that bend. "Jax!" she urged, panic rising.

He stepped back and aimed his SMG at the door's lock. "Cover your eyes!" he warned. Lyra and Eris turned away as he fired a short burst. The gunshots were thunderous in the tight space. The lock and chain shattered in a burst of sparks.

Jax kicked the door, and it flung open to blinding daylight. They barreled out into an alleyway, the sudden downpour of rain slicing into their faces. Lyra realized it must be early afternoon, but the storm and adrenaline made it feel like midnight.

They emerged behind an old brick building. A startled vagrant who had been sheltering under a piece of plastic yelped and scurried away at their appearance. Beyond the alley mouth, a few pedestrians on the street had stopped, alarmed by the gunfire.

"Van's around the corner," Eris shouted over the rain, already pulling a small remote from her pocket. She pressed a button frantically. "Come on, come on..."

The echoing shouts of their pursuers came from the tunnel behind. They were almost out.

Jax ushered Lyra and Eris forward. The three splashed through puddles toward the alley's opening. As they emerged onto the street, a dark blue van skidded around the corner, driverless, and screeched to a halt in front of them. Eris yanked the side door open. "Get in!"

Lyra shoved Eris in ahead of her, then clambered inside, pulling the door half-shut. Jax leapt into the back just as a bullet pinged off the asphalt nearby. Down the block, a pair of black-clad security officers had appeared, taking aim.

"Drive!" Lyra shouted.

Eris scrambled into the front seat and slammed her hand on the manual control, sending the van lurching forward. Lyra grabbed the interior handle to keep balance and yanked the side door fully closed just as a volley of gunfire clattered against the van's rear.

"Armor engaged!" Jax called from the back. He hit a switch and metal shutters rolled down over the van's rear window with a clunk, shielding them.

The van accelerated, engine whining. Through the front windshield, Lyra saw the rainy street blur by. A glance in the side mirror showed the two security officers growing distant, one speaking urgently into his comm. They'd bring more.

As if on cue, a sharp buzzing noise rose above the rain's drum. Lyra looked up through the windshield and saw three sleek security drones zipping around the corner of a high-rise, lights blinking red. They vectored toward the van like mechanized hornets.

"Of course they have drones," Lyra muttered. She turned to Jax in the back. He was already prying open a weapons locker bolted to the floor, likely Eris's emergency stash. He tossed Lyra a compact SMG similar to his. "Extra mags under the bench!"

She found them and loaded a fresh magazine into the weapon, hands steady despite her racing pulse. The van swerved as Eris took a hard turn onto a wider avenue, narrowly missing a delivery truck.

"Sorry!" Eris shouted over the grind of gears. She was hunched forward, white-knuckled on the wheel.

Lyra peered through one of the narrow firing slits in the shutter. A drone had swung around in front of them, keeping pace. Suddenly, its underside gun turret flashed. A burst of rounds peppered the road and hood. The van shuddered and the windshield sprouted a spiderweb of cracks. Eris cried out as the glass fragment hit her arm.

"Hang on!" Jax barked. He had climbed halfway out of the roof hatch with a rifle. He fired a burst at the lead drone, but it darted aside with an agility that normal pilots couldn't match—likely AI-driven.

Lyra slid open a side firing port and leaned her SMG out, rain splattering her face. She tracked one of the trailing drones and squeezed the trigger. Her shots went wide as the van jounced over a pothole. The drone returned fire, a stream of tracers lacing overhead. One round tore the port wider, narrowly missing her.

Jax took a more measured approach. Bracing against the roof, he fired again in a short, controlled burst. This time, the rifle rounds punched through the lead drone's armor. It exploded in a shower of sparks, pieces clattering off the van's roof. Jax ducked back down, teeth gritted.

"Two left!" Lyra yelled.

The remaining drones flanked the van like wolves harrying prey. One moved to the right side, trying to get an angle on the tires. The other climbed high, perhaps relaying their position or waiting for a clean shot.

Eris made a sharp right down an alley, skidding on the wet pavement. Trash cans flew aside. For a moment, the drone on their right lost line of sight and overshot the turn.

Lyra seized the chance. She pivoted to the back, shoved open a small rear hatch in the shutter, and fired a burst at the trailing machine now rounding into the alley. Her bullets sparked off its chassis. It retaliated, and the van's rear door dented with the impact of several rounds. But one of Lyra's shots must have hit something vital—the drone wobbled, its flight pattern erratic.

Jax, still halfway out the roof, finished it with a single well-aimed shot. The drone careened into the alley wall and exploded, sending masonry chunks flying.

Eris whooped from the front, but it was cut short. The final drone dropped from above right in front of the van, blocking the alley exit. Its weapon spun up with an audible whine.

"Brace!" Eris screamed.

Instead, Lyra launched herself into the front passenger seat and slammed her hand on the horn and headlights. The sudden blare and glare disoriented the drone's sensors for a split second—long enough that its volley went wide, shredding a line of neon signs instead of the van.

Eris floored the accelerator with a cry. The heavy van plowed into the drone before it could recover, a crunch of metal and circuitry as it was rammed aside. The drone tumbled across the pavement in pieces.

The van burst out of the alley back onto a main road. Eris kept driving, knuckles white. "Everyone okay?" she called, voice shaking.

Lyra realized she was half in Eris's lap from her lunge. She quickly scrambled back into the passenger seat properly, adrenaline thrumming. "I'm good... I'm good."

In the back, Jax dropped down from the roof hatch and slammed it shut. He was panting but had a wild grin. "Clear... we're clear."

For a few more blocks, none of them relaxed. Eris drove in a zigzag pattern through a warren of side streets, then into an underground parking garage of an unfinished high-rise. Only when the van was parked in the shadows on a lower level did they finally pause and listen.

Aside from the distant rumble of thunder and the hiss of rain outside, all was quiet. No sirens, no humming drones.

Jax finally let out a breath and clapped a hand on Lyra's shoulder. "Hell of a getaway."

Lyra managed a shaky smile. Her chest was heaving from exertion and nerves, but they had done it. "Remind me to never doubt Eris's driving again."

Eris gave a weak laugh from the driver's seat, pushing damp hair off her forehead. "I'll consider that a compliment."