Excerpt: Shift

The city was bright even at night. Street lamps illuminated the streets, eliminating almost all of the shadows in the night. A lone figure dashed through one of the lit streets, keeping close to the concrete walls of the buildings, as far from the light as possible. He turned a corner into a small alley. In moments he was out the other side and in a small lot. It was clean just like the rest of the city. For one of the few undeveloped areas of the city, it looked exactly like the busy streets did. The only difference was the blatant lack of light in the small space.
The man glanced around for a moment. He dropped close to the ground and pulled up on the manhole cover he crouched beside. He pushed it aside and dropped himself over the edge. Just as his head disappeared, his hand grabbed the circular cover and pulled it back to its previous location. A low thunk echoed through the small lot as the man disappeared from sight.
The rungs of the ladder were old and squeacked as he descended towards the bottom. When his feet finally touched the ground, he took off running. The echoes of his footsteps were carried through the long tunnel. The dim lights that lit the old sewer system were barely enough to see the way to his destination, but he had no need for them. He had been making this journey for a long time. He stopped suddenly as the tunnel curved sharply to the left.
He ran his hands along the wall, searching. Calloused fingers met a small indention. He gripped into the wall and pulled. With a low groan, a small doorway opened, flooding the dim sewer with bright light. Moments later, he entered the bright room and pulled the makeshift door closed behind himself. He took a moment to pause and sigh with relief. A click from across the room brought his attention to the woman who had just entered.
“Evander!” She cried and hurried towards him. “Did you get it?” She asked hurriedly. The man nodded once and made his way to the door the woman had come from.
“Yeah. Hugh needs to see this. I think we might have exactly what we’ve been looking for all along.” The woman’s eyes widened as she followed him through the door and down another hallway.
“What is it? This has to be big if you think it will work.” She fell into step behind him as the two walked. “You really think it will work, whatever this is?”
“Nyssa, I wouldn’t be saying this if I wasn’t confident in it.” Evander patted his breast pocket and smiled. “This is it. This is our chance to finally accomplish our goal.” He opened another door and walked into a room filled with screens. A teen turned in his chair too see the two enter.
“I was wondering if you were ever going to get back. What have you got, Boss?” The teen held out his hand and watched as Evander pulled a single plastic card out of his pocket.
“I’ve got what we need to finally end this. Take a look, Hubert.”