His breathing became quicker, more frantic. Fingers clenched. Teeth ground together. Beneath shut eyelids dilated pupils danced.
One last violent shudder. Saliva laced with bile dripped from his mouth to the steel floor.
Hector’s eyes burst open.
A long, dimly lit tunnel. Industrial lamps cast circular rings of light and long shadows. Thick electrical cords drooped from lamp to lamp. Rusted metal plates served as makeshift walls. Larger steel pylons and frames held up an ironclad roof. An aluminum-clad tube pumped oxygen through intermittent ducts. A thunderous grinding, like a blade against stone, came from farther down the tunnel.
His tactical suit’s helmet was gone, but he could breathe and hear. An artificial atmosphere had been created within the corridor.
His wrist was shackled to a thin copper pipe. Beads of liquid sprinkled its exterior. Hector jerked his wrist. The pipe rattled. He yanked again. The shackle sliced through his skin, but the conduit bent.
He slammed his boot into the pipe. It fractured. Murky water sprayed. He bashed the hairline crack. It broke. He clambered to his feet as water drenched the ground.
The deafening rumble stopped. A siren screamed. Shouts came from one end of the tunnel. Hector darted toward where he’d heard the thunder. He turned a corner.
A behemoth of a machine with a propeller-like blade ground into the ashen soil at the end of the tunnel.
The machinists spotted him. Hector fled back down the corridor, but didn’t get far. His sister and another man leveled their weapons at him.
“Told you the pipe wouldn’t hold,” said Alexandra.
“This ain’t a prison, sweetheart.” The foreman walked to the broken pipe.
“The next shot is lethal. Kneel.”
He complied, but blurted, “Alexandra, it’s me! Hector! Your brother!”
A slight hesitation. Then, her eyes narrowed. She tossed him a set of inhibitor cuffs.
“Shut up.”
He slapped the cuffs to the ground. “Do you remember me? Why are you working for them? What are you–”
She took one step forward and slammed the butt of her handgun into the back of his head.
