Saint descended first. His boots landed lower than expected.
"Drop is about three meters," he said.
The Engineer came second, lowering his case before squeezing through the widened mouth.
When he straightened on the other side, the scanner clicked again.
Vesper followed last, light and silent. The loud scanner beep piqued her interest.
"What's this now?"
"There's some abnormal reading down here," the Engineer replied. "My scanner can't explain exactly what it is. I don't know how to either."
There, the passage descended into the earth. Cold air flowing up from below. His headlamp pointed ahead.
"This should be where they started running," Vesper closed her eyes and focused. Her senses spread into the earth wall toward the deeper reaches of the underground passage.
"Strange," she frowned. "This is strange."
Saint and the Engineer turned over. "What's strange?"
"This area... is too clean."
"What do you mean by that?" Saint raised a brow while the Engineer's eyes scanned everything around them.
After a moment of silence—
"She's right," he interjected. "It doesn't make sense."
The Engineer approached a side of the wall and placed his hand over. His fingers slid down the surface.
"It's too smooth."
"Well," Saint's confusion increased. "What's the matter if it's smooth?"
Vesper pulled her senses back and opened her eyes. She took a deep breath before exhaling long.
"The upper passage was roughly built—by hands. Clawed inch by inch, and then this... How can everything be so smooth? So different?"
"Perhaps they finally used a machine?"
"No."
The Engineer's answer came quick.
Saint glanced at him, "That certain?"
"Machines leave rhythmic patterns," the Engineer narrowed his eyes, further observing the earth's texture. "Teeth. Heat. Vibration marks. Something that leaves any trace. This one... it has none of that."
Just as his hands scraped the soil, he stumbled upon something new.
His headlamp shifted slightly.
There was a shallow depression in the wall. Five lines, not of scratches, but of finger marks.
"What's this now?" Saint stopped by the Engineer's side, placing his hand near it.
"Too small for mine."
"That isn't the problem," the Engineer muttered.
"Then what is?"
He touched the edge of the mark. The stone around it hadn't shattered, nor had split outward from pressure.
It had sunk into the packed wall without disturbing the earth around it.
"This is no longer within my realm of science," the Engineer scratched his head, unable to find a plausible explanation to this mystery.
"We should probably leave it be. Leave a mark and keep moving."
Vesper spoke from behind.
"Yeah," Saint agreed. "If you can't answer it, let's not waste time guessing."
"I think you're right..."
Though unwilling, the Engineer sighed before packing up his instruments.
The team moved along the smoothened passage.
The deeper they went, the less it resembled an escape tunnel. The walls curved in lines, as if the earth had been pushed aside and told to stay exactly where they were.
The Engineer said nothing along the journey. His scanner had done more talking.
Click.
Click.
Click.
The Engineer's face was full of confusion. It clicks every ten meters?
"Air flow is rising," he muttered, trying to shake off that peculiar feeling.
"From ahead?"
"I don't know," the Engineer shrugged. "Seems like everywhere ahead."
Vesper stopped walking. Her ears perked up, picking up faint noises ahead.
"Water."
Saint listened. "I don't hear anything."
"Because you're not me," Vesper rolled her eyes. "You'll hear it soon."
A few seconds later, the sound reached them too. It was faint and continuous—endlessly flowing.
The passage opened into a cramped cavity of stone and mud. Vines and grasses crawled from above, forming a thin layer of natural curtains that seemingly covered this entrance.
A narrow crack split the far wall, and beyond it, night air slipped through.
"A riverbank?" the Engineer asked.
"Not exactly," Vesper's nose twitched. She pushed aside a curtain of vines with two fingers.
Beyond the crack, black water moved below them through a narrow channel.
It was too straight to be natural. Or too confined to be called a river.
"Drainage channel," she said.
The Engineer lifted his headlamp. Something's not right here. Just where is this channel even coming from? And why here even?
Concrete walls lined the waterway, half-swallowed by roots and mud. Farther ahead, the channel widened toward the direction of the river.
Vesper knelt beside the opening. Her eyes locked onto a shoe mark almost fading to obscurity.
"Find something mysterious again?" Saint teased.
"Yeah, at least this time, we know the answer."
"Oh?" Saint was intrigued.
Vesper pointed at the shoe mark. "Recent. They didn't have time to hide everything."
She leaned farther out and studied the lower edge of the channel.
"Nothing. They must have jumped over."
Saint crouched beside her. "Or they jumped into the water."
"I would call them stupid if they did that."
"They could have masked their scent. What do you know about it? You just don't like getting wet, don't you?"
"In many times, yes. Other times... I do want to."
"Women," Saint snorted. "You can't even just say yes, or no."
"My point is that once you get out of the water, you'll leave more traces than you ever expected in the first place."
She stood up and glanced toward the intersecting channel and riverbank.
"If they're superhumans, jumping over this channel is cleaner than swimming through it, don't you think?"
"I would swim," Saint didn't hesitate.
Vesper lost interest and flung her hair.
The Engineer, ignorant to their banters, stared at his mildly beeping scanner. It's rising again. What's happening? Is something wrong with the device?
He wriggled it around, yet was unable to find an answer to the weird phenomena. He closed the scanner and pointed his headlamp across the channel.
"Three meters. Maybe four."
Saint looked at the opposite ledge. "That's nothing."
For you, the Engineer sighed.
Vesper nodded toward the far side. "Then check there. If they crossed, the next mark should be near those ledges."
"Why don't you check it yourself? Aren't you better than me about this?"
"You said it was nothing," Vesper shrugged. "Checking things out shouldn't also be too difficult, right? Or are you not a man of your words?"
"You..." Saint was at a loss.
"Do you want this poor woman to do all the work alone?"
What work had you ever done since this thing started?!
Saint wanted to argue but the mission at hand was more important.
He harrumphed, steam exploding out of his large nose. With a grunt, power streamed into his legs.
He bent his knees once, causing the ground to crack beneath his boots.
Then he jumped.
His body crossed the channel in a single burst, landing on the opposite ledge with a heavy thud.
Mud splashed outward, but he barely shifted.
"See?" he called back. "Nothing."
"Seems like they didn't cross then!" Vesper shouted. "If they did, then the concrete would have cracked!"
Saint stumbled as he tried to balance his footing. Damn this woman! Why have me jump over for no reason then?!
"Just kidding," she laughed. "Perhaps they have more control than you do."
"Are you going to tell me what to do now?!"
"Check the ledges or those patches of soil around you."
Saint lowered his head. Near the edge, half-hidden beneath wet grass, was another shoe mark.
There were three of them.
His expression changed. "They crossed."
"Of course they did."
Vesper smiled faintly, landing beside Saint. The Engineer stiffened as he was being princess-carried, quickly disembarking from her embrace.
Her eyes glowed faintly, tracking several shoe marks within the grasses.
"To the river. Did they escape, or rendezvous with other cells?"
"Who knows?" Saint shrugged. "We'll know when we get there."
"No," Vesper shook her head; the glow in her eyes had faded away. "We should wait here or rendezvous with the squad leader."
Saint narrowed his eyes. "Are you telling me we're no match with them?"
"If they lay a trap to their pursuers, then yes, we will not be a match to them."
Vesper coldly glanced ahead. "They're SAS Agents. They aren't simple."
"We aren't simple either."
"No use talking to you."
"So we just let them go?" Saint twitched his mouth. After all that hard work, it seemed that the pursuit would have to prematurely end here.
"We don't have much business with them anyway," Vesper chuckled. "If we can find them on this trail, then good. If not, we should stop here and relay this info to the squad leader. She'll handle the rest."