Chapter 139: One Explosion Could Wake Every Monster Under Kharad

The next pressure discharge came from the market.

Raven was crossing a street when he heard the bells change first.

Two rapid strikes.

One deeper note.

Then the shriek of metal under strain.

He looked up.

A stone balcony had shifted.

Below it, a woman was trying to lift an overturned crate while someone shouted from inside a shop.

Raven changed direction.

Burst Step.

He appeared beside her.

"Leave it."

"My sister is inside."

That changed the situation.

Raven looked at the entrance. The frame was already beginning to deform.

"Where?"

"In the back. A shelf fell on her."

Raven went inside.

The building groaned again.

Bad idea.

He knew.

The woman tried to follow him.

Raven turned.

"You stay here."

"But—"

"If I have to carry both of you out, it takes longer."

That worked.

Raven moved deeper into the shop through dust, overturned shelves, and a fallen support beam.

He found the sister behind the counter. She was older, with one leg pinned beneath a mixture of timber and stone.

"Can you move your toes?"

She stared at him in confusion.

"What?"

"Your toes."

She moved them.

Good.

Probably no catastrophic fracture.

Raven spread Stonehide across both forearms, wedged his hands beneath the beam, and lifted.

Pain stabbed through his ribs.

Less than it would have two days ago.

Predatory Regeneration responded with heat beneath his skin.

"Pull your leg out."

The woman obeyed.

Raven released the beam.

The building groaned again.

"Now we walk."

"I can’t."

Raven looked at her.

"Then I walk and you complain."

He picked her up.

They made it outside just as part of the upper floor began to fail.

Valeria was waiting in the street.

Her expression changed when she saw Raven carrying the woman.

Raven handed the injured woman to another resident.

"Healer. Leg looks compressed, not broken."

The woman who had asked for help grabbed Raven’s hand.

"Thank you."

Raven nodded.

There was no time for more.

He turned.

Valeria was still looking at him.

"No."

She smiled.

"I haven’t said anything yet."

"You were about to."

"You went out of your way for her."

Raven pointed toward the street.

"She was in my path."

Valeria looked from where Raven had originally been walking to the shop.

"She was twenty meters away from your path."

Raven started walking again.

"Then the path was wider than it looked."

Valeria caught up with him.

"That was terrible."

"It worked."

"Not as an excuse."

"I wasn’t asking for approval."

"Of course not."

Raven glanced at her.

"Are you going to keep doing this while the town is collapsing?"

"Only when you give me enough material."

"Then I hope you run out of opportunities."

"I don’t."

The conversation ended when Roland came running toward them.

He wasn’t coming from the evacuation area.

He was coming from the Keller Ridge office near the warehouse destroyed the previous day.

And he was pointing at a man.

"Raven!"

The man was running away from the chaos.

That alone was suspicious.

Everyone else was moving toward open squares, elevated ground, or family members.

He was carrying a leather case under one arm.

"He came out the back of the Keller Ridge office," Roland said. "And he just set something on fire."

Raven changed direction.

"Valeria, with me."

"I thought we were saving people."

"Now we’re saving documents."

She smiled.

"That sounds more like you."

The man saw them.

He ran faster.

Bad choice.

Raven didn’t use Burst Step immediately. The street ahead was too crowded and fractured for a blind acceleration.

The fugitive shoved an old man aside.

Raven read the route.

The man would turn right, take the stairs, then cut through the alley.

Raven could intercept him.

"Roland, stay straight."

The archer understood.

Raven turned down a side street while Valeria continued directly behind the fugitive.

The ground vibrated.

Raven didn’t slow.

A small bell to his right began ringing.

Shallow activity.

Not directly beneath him.

Good.

He vaulted a low wall, crossed a courtyard, and emerged at the opposite end of the alley just as the fugitive appeared.

The man stopped.

Raven stood in front of him.

Valeria was behind him.

The fugitive reached inside his coat.

Raven spoke before he could pull anything out.

"If it’s a weapon, you’ll lose the hand before you use it. If it’s documents, I’d prefer them intact. Make your choice based on how attached you are to your fingers."

The man hesitated.

That was enough.

Valeria raised two fingers.

A blood thread wrapped around his wrist and violently pulled his hand away from his coat.

A small alchemical detonator fell to the ground.

Raven saw crystal, metal, and part of a rune.

The man tried to stomp on it.

Raven used Kinetic Acceleration on a loose stone.

It struck the fugitive’s ankle.

CRACK.

The man collapsed with a scream.

Roland arrived seconds later.

"That sounded broken."

"Probably."

"Did we need to break it?"

Raven picked up the detonator.

"He tried to step on this."

Valeria took the leather case.

"And this looks more interesting."

She opened it.

Records.

Not everything.

But enough.

Property lists.

Acquisition orders.

Payments for alchemical charges.

Worker movements into Bore Twelve.

And several recent notes.

Pressure activity increasing.

Continue stimulation.

Civil authority relocation threshold not yet met.

Maelor arrived while Raven was reading the final line.

The guide was covered in dust.

"Tell me that doesn’t mean what it looks like."

Valeria showed him the page.

Maelor read it.

His expression changed.

"They were provoking them deliberately."

The man on the ground stopped screaming.

That was a mistake.

Raven looked at him.

"How many charges?"

"I don’t know what you’re talking about."

Raven looked at the detonator, then at the documents, and finally back at the man.

"We can waste time pretending I don’t know what this is, but the ground beneath us is full of animals that respond to vibration, and your company has been purchasing explosives for months. I’m more interested in how many charges you planted that haven’t detonated yet."

The man clenched his teeth.

"You can’t prove—"

Valeria closed her eyes.

"Ah. One of those."

Raven sighed.

"Yes."

Roland looked between them.

"One of what?"

"The ones who still think they’re negotiating."

Raven crouched in front of the man.

He didn’t draw his knife.

There was no need.

"Listen carefully. I’m not investigating this because I want to drag you in front of a judge. I don’t care which official you paid, how much money your company expected to make, or which superior signed the order. I care about the charges that haven’t exploded because every one of them can push the colony farther into the city."

The man stared at him.

"You don’t know what you’re doing."

"Possibly. You do. That’s why you’re still useful."

Valeria watched Raven.

Years ago, this would have been a different interrogation.

Faster.

More painful.

But there was a disaster unfolding around them, and the man could still provide information they needed.

The fugitive took a deep breath.

"I don’t control the detonations."

"Who does?"

Silence.

Raven placed the detonator against the man’s broken knee.

Not with pressure.

Just enough for him to see it.

"We can go back to the part where you were pretending not to recognize this."

"Supervisor Hedd."

"Where is he?"

"Bore Twelve."

Maelor stepped forward.

"That tunnel is sealed."

The man gave a nervous laugh.

"Officially."

Raven already knew that.

"How many charges are left?"

"Two."

Maelor relaxed slightly.

The man continued.

"Maybe three."

Raven looked at him.

"Decide."

"Three. There were three this morning. One already went off."

"Then two remain."

"No."

Everyone went quiet.

Raven tilted his head.

"Explain."

The man swallowed.

"The one this morning wasn’t one of them."

Maelor went pale.

"What?"

"It was a surface charge. For another building. The large charges are underground."

The noise around Raven seemed to recede.

Not literally.

Focus.

"Where underground?"

"Old galleries. Near the pressure corridors."

"What are they for?"

The man glanced around as though there were still someone he could protect.

Raven waited.

Eventually, he answered.

"They wanted to force the colony into another sector."

Maelor grabbed him by the shirt.

"You idiots! You don’t use explosives inside an active pressure network!"

Raven caught Maelor’s arm.

"Let him talk."

"They’re going to collapse half the underground network!"

"That’s exactly why I need him talking."

Maelor released the man.

Raven looked back at the prisoner.

"When do they detonate?"

"One isn’t supposed to go off until tomorrow."

"And the other?"

The man said nothing.

Raven understood the answer before hearing it.

"When?"

"It’s already armed."

Valeria stepped closer.

"Timer?"

"Alchemical sequence."

"How long?"

"I don’t know exactly."

Raven stood.

"Approximate."

"Hours."

"One?"

"Could be."

"Two?"

"Maybe."

Raven looked at Maelor.

The guide was already calculating.

"Where?"

The prisoner swallowed.

"Old Pressure Gallery. Beneath Bore Twelve."

All the color drained from Maelor’s face.

Valeria noticed.

"That’s bad."

"You don’t understand."

"Then explain."

Maelor pointed toward the ground.

"The old pressure chambers connect to almost the entire lower colony. They aren’t ordinary tunnels. They’re conduits. If a large charge detonates there, the shock wave will travel through the network."

Roland frowned.

"And wake the Burrowers?"

Maelor looked at him.

"No."

He paused.

"All of them."

Raven turned back toward the prisoner.

"How large is the charge?"

"Enough to collapse the gallery."

"Was that part of the plan?"

"They wanted to seal the corridor and force the colony to migrate."

Maelor laughed once.

There was no humor in it.

"They’ll interpret the pressure wave as an attack on the colony."

Raven slipped the detonator into his coat.

Now he understood.

The surface explosions had irritated the Burrowers. They had altered routes, provoked juveniles, and pushed adults toward Kharad.

But a detonation inside the primary pressure network wouldn’t be external noise.

It would be an attack from inside their colony.

Raven looked across the city.

Bells were still ringing in different districts. People were evacuating. One street had already opened into the tunnels below, and several buildings were leaning.

Underneath all of that were dozens of creatures that still weren’t fully active.

Yet.

Valeria stepped beside him.

"What do we do?"

Raven looked at Maelor.

"Can you get me to Old Pressure Gallery?"

The guide hesitated for only a second.

"Yes."

"Through Bore Twelve?"

"Fastest route."

"Then we go."

Roland pointed toward the prisoner.

"And him?"

Raven looked at the man.

"Give him to Joren. Don’t let anyone kill him until we know whether he lied."

The fugitive’s eyes widened.

"I didn’t lie!"

Raven was already walking.

"Then today is your lucky day."

Valeria caught up with him.

"Five minutes ago you were organizing an evacuation. Now you’re going directly beneath the colony."

"Yes."

"I just wanted to hear how that sounded out loud."

Raven looked toward the bells.

"It sounds worse when you say it."

Maelor turned onto another street and started north.

Raven followed.

Behind them, Kharad continued to tremble.

Ahead was Bore Twelve.

Somewhere beneath it, an alchemical charge was counting down toward an explosion capable of traveling through the entire tunnel network.

And for the first time since they arrived, Maelor stopped talking about waking the colony as a possibility.

Now it was a deadline.