Read Aloud

Read Aloud — The Hollow Vein

The collapsed mine face opens only after Rook transmits a code. Stone rolls aside on hidden tracks, revealing a narrow pressure tunnel and a row of old work lamps.

Inside, the air is warm and tastes faintly of metal. Bedrolls cover the floor around a portable heater. Someone has painted the Free Daegox symbol over an abandoned corporate safety sign.

For several seconds, nobody speaks. Weapons lower. Helmets open. The twins sit together against the wall, close enough that loose dust circles their boots but nothing breaks.

Rook looks over whoever made it.

“All right,” she says. “Now we count the living. Then I tell you how badly this went.”