interi

“What are you going to do?”

“Oh, you know, standard heroics. When they least expect it I am going to swing down, smash through a window, save the guy, and dramatically escape into the night!” He smiled, his teeth glowing blue in the light of the kerosene torch.

“Do you know which train they are in?” Maverick peered over the edge, turning up the magnification on his goggles. There were dim lights moving far below them. He could tell that the men in black were moving in pairs, having already mapped out their patrol paths. Trained security forces.

“Nah! I figure I will figure it out when I get to a lower platform. I mean, jumping from here would be silly!” Cart laughed at his own joke. There were half a kilometer above the target. Despite the risk he was going to take, Cart knew better than to jump from this height.

In addition to the sheer force of the fall, there would be other obstacles in the way. Various beams and cables connected the towering cranes to each other and to the wall of the transport yard. If light were ever to illuminate this world under the city, most would fall back from dizziness due to the disturbing proportions of the webbed canopy. Well, most from the upper levels. In the Downs everyone had at least an idea of their world, as dark and unnatural as it was. Cultural muscle memory.

“You figure. Of course you figure,” Maverick shook his shaggy mop of hair and neoprene extensions, careful not to add fuel to the torch. “What is it that you figure will happen down there, boy? What is that kid to you, what do you own ‘im?”

Cart sat back against his duffel bag of climbing gear, stretching his arm out behind him and cupping the back of his head. He closed his eyes for a long moment before answering.

“It ain’t right.”

“That is what I am tellin’ you, boy! This is a fool’s rush. You will just get yerself kill…”

“No, not that. What they did to him. That ain’t right. If it were any of us down there, well, it wouldn’t have even gotten this far, ne? We woulda done all we could to protect us. Downs people, we stick together like that.”

“You damn right we do,” Maverick spit, which he hoped Cart took to mean he was serious. “Downs’ take care of our own. That is why we let suits come in, but they know they gotta leave soon.”

“Right! So I am just gonna make sure they do that, minus the kid. Aside, it ain’t right, fear. That’s what you teach the kids around here, ne? And that kid is feared. The Black Suits gonna leave alright. I am gonna make them.”

Cart stood up, grabbed his gear, and jumped head first from the platform. Mid-fall he tucked his body in, wrapping it around the duffel bag. He was up and running down another platform before the bungee net had even settled. Maverick put out the torch and counted to himself in the dark. When he figured Cart was halfway to his launch point he stepped back four steps and turned to the left. Three paces and he hit a softly glowing blue button hanging in the air. The silent elevator ascended into the darkness.