_*]:min-w-0 !gap-3.5">Viktor noticed it first—the subtle shift in security patterns. Two guards at the main corridor junction instead of one. The usual maintenance crew repced with unfamiliar faces who watched him too intently. The quiet conversations that ceased when he approached.

  His enhanced hearing caught fragments of radio communications: "...maintain visual..." and "...approach with caution..."

  Something had changed. He altered his path, moving toward the administrative section through less-traveled corridors. As he passed near Captain Rivera's office, familiar voices drew him to pause in the adjacent maintenance alcove.

  "—tracked the anomalies systematically." Sophia's voice, clinical and precise. "Inconsistent pupilry response to light. Unexpined navigation capabilities during complete darkness. Food consumption patterns that don't align with his physical activity. Extraordinary strength observed when he believed himself unobserved."

  "And you're certain?" Rivera's bass rumble.

  "The evidence is compelling. Most significantly, there was an unexpined medical recovery involving one of the children. A treatment administered without proper documentation, resulting in recovery rates that defy conventional medicine."

  Papers shuffled. "This is detailed work, Professor."

  "Science requires precision," Sophia replied. "Particurly when the hypothesis is extraordinary."

  "If he is what you suspect," Rivera said, "capturing him alive would provide invaluable research opportunity. Dr. Wright's work could advance significantly with a cooperative subject."

  "I recommend a controlled environment with silver-infused restraints," Sophia continued. "Initial blood exposure testing to confirm, followed by systematic—"

  Viktor had heard enough. He slipped away silently, mind racing. The methodical approach didn't surprise him—it was exactly how he would have proceeded as a scientist. What cut deeper was hearing Sophia's cold assessment after her conversation with Elena, the detached categorization of him as a specimen rather than a person.

  He found Elena in their quarters, cataloging medical supplies.

  "We need to leave. Now." His voice was low but urgent. "Sophia reported to Rivera. They're organizing my capture for experimentation."

  Elena's eyes widened, but she asked no unnecessary questions, immediately retrieving their emergency packs from beneath the bed. Her efficiency was both impressive and heartbreaking—she had prepared for this despite hoping it wouldn't come.

  "You should stay," Viktor said suddenly, the words escaping before he could reconsider them. "The Underground is safe. You have work here, respect. I'm the one they want."

  Elena paused, looking up from the bag she was filling with research notes. "Don't be absurd."

  "This isn't your fight," he persisted. "You'd be giving up everything—security, community, resources. For what? To live on the run with a vampire?"

  "Are you finished?" Elena asked calmly, continuing to pack essential items. When he didn't respond, she straightened and met his gaze directly. "I'm a scientist, Viktor. I follow evidence and draw conclusions based on observation. And everything I've observed tells me that leaving with you is the correct choice."

  She zipped the medical pack with finality. "Besides, our research isn't finished. And I refuse to abandon a promising study because of intellectual cowardice—mine or Sophia's."

  The simplicity of her decision, framed in the scientific terms that defined her worldview, left Viktor momentarily speechless. Before he could respond, a soft knock interrupted them.

  Elena opened the door to find Adam and Eva, their small faces solemn.

  "Are you leaving?" Eva asked, her perception keener than most adults gave her credit for. "People are acting strange, and Runner said you might have to go away."

  Viktor knelt to their level. "We have to go away for a little while," he said gently. "Sometimes adults have disagreements about important things."

  Adam's lower lip trembled. "But you made me better. Why would you have to leave?"

  "Because not everyone understands how I did that," Viktor said carefully.

  Eva threw her arms around his neck. "When will you come back?"

  Viktor exchanged a gnce with Elena over the child's shoulder. "As soon as we can," he said, the closest approximation to truth he could offer.

  Adam pressed his drawing into Viktor's hand. "Take this so you don't forget us."

  Elena knelt beside them. "We could never forget you," she said, her voice steady despite the emotion Viktor heard in her heartbeat. "Be brave for each other, just like you've been doing."

  After the twins reluctantly departed, Viktor carefully folded the drawing into his journal. "We have maybe twenty minutes before they come for me. Any ter and we risk sending the entire security team into high alert."

  "Then we should—" Elena began, but froze as the door opened again without warning.

  Runner slipped inside, closing it quickly behind him. "They're coming," the teenager said without preamble. "Rivera's got a full security team assembling in the main corridor."

  "How do you know this?" Viktor asked, instantly alert.

  "I listen," Runner shrugged. "Nobody notices kids like me. They talk like I'm not there." He moved to the ventition grate in the corner. "You need to take the maintenance tunnels. I can show you a way out they don't patrol regurly."

  Elena gnced at Viktor, who nodded. "Lead the way."

  Runner pried open the grate with practiced ease, revealing a passage barely rge enough for an adult to crawl through. "Service access," he expined. "Connects all the major sections. Security doesn't use it because most of them are too big to fit comfortably."

  He led them through a cramped maze of dusty passages, Viktor noting each turn with his perfect memory. After several minutes of uncomfortable crawling, they emerged into a rger maintenance tunnel with enough height to stand hunched over.

  "The Underground patrol schedule has a gap every thirty-eight minutes at the northeast sector," Runner expined, moving confidently through the dimly lit passage. "If we time it right, you can exit through the old ventition system. It comes out three blocks away, behind the colpsed department store."

  "How do you know all this?" Elena asked, impressed.

  Runner's expression was a mixture of pride and sadness. "I've been mapping escape routes since I got here. Never felt safe staying in one pce too long."

  They froze at the sound of boots in a connecting passageway. Runner pulled them into a narrow utility closet barely rge enough for the three of them. Elena found herself pressed against Viktor's chest in the darkness, his arm automatically protective around her shoulders.

  Through the thin door, Rivera's voice carried clearly: "I want him taken alive. Professor Chen believes he's been turned but maintains control. If that's true, he's the most valuable research subject we've encountered."

  "And if he resists?" Another voice, one of the security team.

  "Non-lethal methods only. Use the silver-tipped restraints Dr. Wright provided. They'll weaken him without permanent damage."

  "What about Dr. Orlov?" A third voice. "She's been working closely with him."

  Sophia's voice, closer than the others: "Elena is a scientist. Once she processes her emotional response to discovering his true nature, she'll understand the research value. Her notes suggest she's already been documenting his anomalies, perhaps unconsciously."

  The betrayal in that clinical assessment made Elena stiffen against Viktor. Her expression in the dimness was unreadable, but he felt the subtle shift in her posture—spine straightening with resolve rather than fear.

  When the search party moved past, Runner led them through increasingly disused tunnels, dust thick on the ground. Finally, they reached a heavy grate partially blocked by debris.

  "This comes out behind the old loading docks," Runner whispered. "The street beyond is usually clear of ferals until much ter at night."

  "You're not coming with us?" Elena asked.

  Runner shook his head. "I still have work here. People who need messages carried." He hesitated. "And the twins need someone to look after them until you come back."

  The unspoken understanding passed between them—the likelihood of return was minimal. But the fiction provided comfort to all three.

  Viktor grasped the teenager's shoulder. "You've saved our lives twice now. We won't forget it."

  "Just don't get caught," Runner replied with forced lightness. "I'd hate to think I went through these dusty tunnels for nothing."

  After Runner departed, Viktor and Elena worked silently to clear the grate. As they prepared to emerge into the night city, Elena paused.

  "I heard what Sophia said," she whispered. "About me processing an emotional response."

  "She's wrong about you," Viktor said.

  "No." Elena's voice was thoughtful. "She's right that I'm a scientist. But she's wrong about what that means." She met his eyes in the darkness. "True science requires us to revise our understanding when new evidence contradicts our theories. Sophia refuses to do that. I won't make the same mistake."

  Viktor pushed the grate open, checking for threats before helping Elena through. They emerged behind a colpsed loading dock, the night air sharp with approaching winter and heavy with the scent of rain. Disoriented by unfamiliar surroundings, they took a moment to get their bearings in the uncertain darkness.

  "Do you know where we are?" Elena whispered, her eyes struggling to adjust after the retive light of the maintenance tunnels.

  Viktor scanned the abandoned street, his enhanced vision making out shapes that would be invisible to Elena. "Eastern sector, I think. This was the commercial district... before."

  A distant arm sounded from the direction of the Underground, followed by shouted commands too faint for Elena to discern.

  "They know we're gone," Viktor said, tension evident in his voice. "We need to move. Now."

  Elena clutched her pack tighter, the reality of their situation suddenly crystal clear. The retive safety of the Underground—with its consistent meals, medical supplies, and community—was behind them. Ahead y only uncertainty in a city cimed by either vampires or death.

  "Which way?" she asked, practicality overriding the momentary doubt.

  Viktor surveyed their options, then pointed east. "Away from their likely search pattern. There are abandoned residential areas that might provide temporary shelter."

  As they slipped into the shadows of the broken city, rain began to fall in a light, steady drizzle, washing away their scent and obscuring visibility—a small mercy in a world suddenly full of threats.

  Viktor was acutely aware of Elena beside him—her quickened heartbeat, her controlled breathing, her determined presence. She had chosen this. Chosen him. The wonder of that decision still stunned him, even as guilt twisted within him for the danger it pced her in.

  "I don't know this part of the city," Elena admitted softly as they moved between abandoned vehicles. "I never ventured this far from the University district, even before."

  "Stay close," Viktor replied. "I'll teach you how to read the streets. What's safe, what isn't."

  Behind them, shouts echoed more distinctly as search parties emerged from the Underground. Before them stretched unknown dangers in a city that belonged neither to humans nor to vampires entirely. And between them—unspoken but undeniable—a partnership that defied the categories both their kinds had established in the aftermath of the world's transformation.