Zan landed them near the far eastern edge of the Pipelands, in the district of the old shops. The one place his da warned him never to go. Directly below them, far, far down, was the Mayor's Fortress. Most of it was covered by platforms and sections of the mid-level, but below that his grand tower awaited.

"How exactly do we get there?" Edrund asked as they made their way down the street, along the abandoned buildings.

Zan tried to get the image of Priya out of his mind and focus. "We fly down."

"How's that?" Edrund asked.

"Zan," Marcin said. "We're not all Grid Runner's like you. We can't just fly around everywhere."

They stopped outside an old electronics store. Its windows were broken and the door lay on the ground, showing a dark cob-webbed room inside.

"In here," Zan said, stepping to the doorway. "They have carrier drones stashed in the back. I found one once, and saw there were loads more."

"That'll be great if we had any parcels or deliveries for the Mayor," Marcin said.

"We're the deliveries," Zan said, searching through the knocked over isles. He brought out a large case and handed one to Marcin, and then found a case for each of them.

"It's not that hard," he went on, unloading the cases. The drones were roughly oval shaped with hard edges, a small display panel on the side and two tracks running underneath it, like the landing skids of a helicopter. "All we have to do is hang on the bottom. You can direct them by pulling in different directions. So pull down on the right side to tilt right, and vice versa."

Zan set them up and laid them out, wiping the dust off his hands and clothes.

"Ah, Zan," Edrund said. "I don't think I have the upper body strength for this."

Ryker turned to him. "You'd be surprised what you can do, if you have to do it."

Zan noticed the tense lines around his eyes. "You okay?"

Ryker shook his head. "I wasn't expecting to go back there, any time soon."

"To the Mayor's Fortress," Zan said. "You never did tell us why you don't like him."

Ryker eyed them for a moment before dropping down onto a crate, sighing. "I worked for him most of my life. My mother and father worked for him, and I grew up around his offices and people. I was blinded by his ideals, but I knew nothing else." He grimaced and swallowed. "But the first time I go against his orders, the only time I think and act for myself during a mission, he punishes me. He said I had become too misguided by other influences, and so he took those influences away from me."

Ryker looked away, his voice lowering. "He had my wife and son murdered. He thought to break me down and wield me as an empty weapon. But I knew I couldn't go back to him."

In the silence that followed, Edrund stepped forward and said, "We'll make sure he pays. For everything he's done."

Zan watched the sorrow distort Ryker's face, and realised he wasn't the threat he'd feared he was.

Marcin powered his drone on and gave them all a defiant look. "Let's do it."

Zan led the way to an opening behind the shops.

"So they'll take us down, with only some lateral movement," Zan said. "We can't go up. They just lower us. So we have to make sure we don't pass the roof."

"Great," Edrund muttered.

Ryker unclipped a small device from his belt. "This is a disrupter bomb. It emits a pulse that can stun and disable enemies. Just throw it at them, if you need to." He handed one to each of them, and then pulled out a thin cylindrical object. "Smoke emitters. Use them to hide and limit their visibility." Again he handed them one each. They nodded and thanked him, although each looked unsure about using them.

Zan stepped to the edge and held his drone up, nodding for them to do the same. The drones quietly whirred in their hands. A moment of vertigo caused his head to throb when he looked over the city below, but he forced himself to focus. He cast a look towards his companions, and swallowed. Please don't let me kill us all.

"Follow me down," Zan said, and hopped off.

The wind rushed over him as his feet fell through the air, his arms locking. His stomach lurched with the velocity – not quite a free fall, but close to it – but after a few seconds he was able to calm himself enough to focus. Above him, the others descended also.

They fell through the open air for some time, seeing a spectacular view of the dark, glowing city around them, before reaching the first few platforms and walkways, and then navigating between tall buildings. Parts of the city blacked out as they fell, large collections of streetlights cutting out.

Zan led them around this section, hoping they could follow him well enough, and came out over the far edge, where the rest of the city lay out below. Steering the drone back around, he finally saw the top of the Mayor's Fortress – a huge rectangular building of cold blues, greys and whites, with few windows and an imposing, daunting structure that narrowed near the top, like a colossal pyramid without the point.

The roof came rushing up to Zan fast. He hit it hard, rolling and knocking the drone against the metal. He slid to a stop and looked up, seeing Ryker coming on to the roof with a much more solid landing. Zan's shoulders sagged with relief when he saw Marcin and Edrund approaching. They successfully managed to land with Zan and Ryker steadying their landings.

"Remind me never to do that again," Edrund said, panting and sweating.

"This way," Ryker said, leading them a doorway on a protruding section of the roof.

They left the drones behind a railing, hidden in shadow, and followed Ryker down the stairs within. Their quick steps echoed through the quiet, winding stairwell.

Coming to a door, Ryker stopped them and peeked through, before gesturing for them to follow. They came out to a carpeted hallway, so quiet it felt threatening. Zan's heart raced as he jogged along, sharing a hesitant but determined look with Marcin and Edrund.

"Most Eclipse are out on the streets," Ryker said quietly. "Thankfully leaving this place mostly undefended at this level."

They rounded the corridor and Ryker led them through a circular metal door. Dozens of monitors covered the walls of the room within. Two men in shirts sat by a large bank of consoles and startled as they entered. Ryker took them out with a quick combination of punches before they could fully rise.

Zan looked around. "A security room?"

"Correct," Ryker said. "We can disable the cameras from here. Buy us some more time." He sat by the console and began typing in commands.

In the corner, a large unit thrummed quietly, powering the computers in the room.

Marcin pointed at one of the monitors. "Look."

Zan and Edrund came to him.

"Whoa," Edrund said. "It's Dallos and San! Looks like they're locked up."

Marcin turned to Ryker. "We have to get them out."

Ryker shook his head. "That's not part of the plan. I'm sorry. They'll have to stay there for now until we get the machines back up."

"No way," Marcin said. "They're our friends. We can't keep them imprisoned like that." He and Edrund looked at each other. "I'll go. On my own."

"No, with me too," Edrund said. "Two is better than one. And we can have each other's backs."

"Do you know a way to the prison cells?" Marcin asked Ryker.

Ryker turned to them. "Fine. You two go, if you have to. But I need Zan." He nodded to a vent up on the wall. "Your best bet is to go via the air vents. You're small enough to." Rising, he brought out a blocky device and handed it to Marcin. "We can communicate with these. Call us if you need any help."

They pulled a table under the air vent.

Marcin paused by the table. "Be safe, Zan." They hugged each other and he added, "There'll always be a place for you with us. I want you to know that."

Zan nodded. "Thanks, Marcin. I'll see you guys soon."

He helped Marcin and Edrund into the air vents while Ryker worked on the console. As Zan replaced the vent cover, the monitors in the room flickered off. The back-up battery in the corner came to a shuddering stop.

"Come on," Ryker said, reaching the door. "Stay behind me, and stay focused."

They left the security room and made their way to the end of the corridor, turning and seeing two Eclipse Guards in the next corridor. Ryker brought out his staff, keeping it retracted to a short baton, and dove into them. Their rifles dropped a moment before their bodies did.

Ryker urged Zan on.

"Why don't you use their guns?" Zan asked as they jogged.

"Casualties of war can't be helped. But it's another thing to intentionally gun down the people you lived and worked with your whole life."

He took Zan through a side door, down a staircase, and came out to a long metal-lined room, brightly lit with a red glow.

"Up here, to the side," Ryker said, pointing to a narrow corridor on a higher level. "This will take you to the Mainframe, through the engine room. It's still up and running, looks like this place is up with back-up power, so be careful. But I know you can make your way through."

"What about you?"

Ryker gestured ahead. "I'll go the long way around. And draw out a few more Eclipse."

"What's waiting for me down this route?"

A corner of Ryker's mouth rose. "Nothing too challenging for the Grid Runner."

Zan raised his brows. Ryker clapped him on the shoulder and turned down the long room. "Good luck. I'll be with you shortly."

"Ryker," Zan said, causing the man to stop. "I'm... sorry I didn't trust you. You're a good man."

Ryker regarded him and then nodded, his expression remaining neutral.

Zan watched him jog away, extending his staff and becoming a hazy shadow in the red light. He sighed, looking over the corridor above him, and made his way up.

He came out of the narrow corridor, which felt more like a vent, and came to a small, confined room. The only exit was a tube that ran straight up, with a white light glowing at the far end. Zan pressed his back against one side and his feet against the other, and slowly made his way up the tube. Just like a trip through the Pipeworks, he told himself.

He came out and found himself in a huge engine room with giant machinery running across it. The ground fell away hundreds of feet below, reaching into darkness, with the ceiling far up above him. A door on the far end of the room marked his only destination. Between him and the other side was a series of machines and walkways. Revolving platforms and large gears rotated, beside a section of pumping pistons the size of trucks.

Zan gulped. Just like a trip through the Pipeworks.

He hopped onto a walkway on the side and made his way to the end, where a small gear slowly turned, half inside the wall. Forcing himself to focus, Zan told himself to just keep moving and not think too hard. He grabbed onto the gear, moving down with it, and swung himself to a lower platform.

He looked over the next obstacles and planned his route. He prepared himself and dove off, swinging off a pole and flying through a gap inside a gear. The giant pistons pumped ahead of him, thudding and hissing like fierce monsters trying to stop him. He jumped to the first one, landing on the pumping section, and caught himself before he jolted and almost fell off. The room jerked back and forth, rattling his brain, but he urged himself on and lunged out to the next piston. Another jump took him to the next platform, where he steadied his breathing and pushed onwards.

Zan kicked off the wall and jumped up to a protruding pipe, shimmying across and then kicking out, swinging to a walkway. 

The door was just above him, up the wall. He pushed off one side to the other, kicking out from one wall to the next, and reached out to grab the top. Pulling himself up, he staggered to the door, looking back at the path he'd just taken, and almost vomited. He turned and entered the next room.

A short corridor opened out to a circular room, with a raised platform running around the edge. Along one half of the room a series of consoles curved along the walls, up on the platform. Beyond the room the ground fell away, to where a series of engines and machinery ran up the walls. Zan looked around and saw he was in an enormous shaft which appeared to run down the entire building. This was it, the Mainframe of the machines. The heart of the city.

He climbed up onto the platform and looked over the bank of consoles. Back-up generators around the room powered what remained of the consoles, allowing him to look through them, but it didn't look good. There was no access to the Grid, from what he could see, and no connection to anywhere outside the room. The consoles were like a rotting corpse, still thinking it was alive.

"I've been looking forward to meeting you."

Zan spun, and saw a man standing in the centre of the room. His thick-jawed face was lined with age, and his piercing grey eyes watched him. A red cloak was pulled over his front, covering most of his broad frame.

Zan froze, his heart racing, faced alone with the Mayor.

(2365 words)