BLOODCAPE
Chapter 134: Dekra’s Teeth

Chapter 134: Chapter 134: Dekra’s Teeth

The tunnels beneath District 10 weren’t built for feet.

They were built for ghosts — long, screaming ribbons of monorail, cutting beneath the underlevels like arteries. But those had stopped decades ago. Now all that remained was rusted track, overhead scaffolding, and darkness that didn’t end when the lights flickered.

Hernan walked ahead, coat trailing behind him, one hand brushing the old rail like it might still carry current. It didn’t.

Beside him, Iro moved like silence made solid. Behind them, Aya stepped carefully — not from fear, but from instinct. The kind that listens for traps in the silence between steps.

The air smelled like ozone and damp concrete. Every few meters, a maintenance light sputtered to life, casting sickly yellow bands over cracked tiles before dying again.

Aya finally broke the silence. "Sector Nine. You sure it’s not another ghost address?"

"No," Hernan said.

"That’s not a yes."

He stopped at a ladder well, eyes scanning the ferrosteel support where the map had long since flaked off. He pointed without looking.

"Cache site’s below the old transit node. The rogue’s log tagged it with a SCX-1Z chain key. I decrypted half the routing markers. It’s real. At least the building is."

Iro’s voice came low, skeptical. "And the rest?"

"We confirm on foot."

Aya folded her arms. "So it’s recon."

"Until it isn’t."

She tilted her head. "And if it is another trap?"

"Then we spring it smart."

They kept walking.

The tunnel sloped downward, walls etched with weld scars and rebel graffiti. Scrawled messages barked like ghosts: VOID THE RED EYE, ZODIAC STILL WATCHES, ONLY THE DEAD EXIT SECTOR NINE.

Aya caught Hernan’s glance. "You trust this route?"

"I trust the math."

Iro’s eyes narrowed. "You’re not telling us something."

Hernan didn’t deny it.

"Sector Nine’s not empty. I reached out to a contact before we left."

Aya frowned. "What kind of contact?"

"The kind who keeps old codes and worse memories. Zodiac intel before the collapse. One of the few who got out... mostly intact."

"Name?" Iro asked.

Hernan hesitated.

"Dekra."

That stopped the air.

Aya’s voice went sharp. "You mean Dekra Dekra? Burned two city blocks just to kill one asset?"

"She was efficient."

"She was insane."

"Only publicly," Hernan said.

"She was Zodiac," Iro said flatly.

"So was I."

They reached a sealed door — an old bulkhead, once welded shut, since re-cut open. Magnetic panels still buzzed faintly. Hernan pulled a black chip from his coat and slotted it into the reader. It blinked green. The door hissed.

Just before it opened, Aya’s voice stopped him.

"Hernan."

He turned.

She didn’t look angry. Just... searching.

"Why her?"

He looked at her for a beat too long. Then: "Because Dekra doesn’t lie. She trades."

"And what does she want from you?"

"Depends what kind of memory she woke up with today."

The door finished opening.

Blue light spilled into the tunnel. The old transit station was eerily intact — grates, terminals, and half-alive ceiling units. At the center stood a woman in a high-collared coat of shifting mesh. Cybernetic coils crowned one side of her scalp. She didn’t carry a weapon.

She didn’t need one.

Her eyes were all teeth.

"Hello, Vale," she said, voice smooth as oil.

"Still not dead," he replied.

"Disappointing," Dekra purred.

Aya didn’t speak, but her posture changed.

Dekra didn’t look at her.

Didn’t look at Iro.

Only Hernan.

And didn’t blink.

Inside the old Zodiac post, the air pulsed with static. Graffiti dripped across steel — NO EXIT / NO NAME / NO MERCY. But beneath the chaos, the systems still hummed. Surveillance feeds buzzed in one corner: rooftop views, alley mouths, blinking nodes.

Dekra sat like a queen atop a broken crate, sipping synthbrew from a bulb as if daring them to question it.

"Still dramatic, Vale," she said. "You never knock."

"I thought it was polite not to wake the dead."

She gave a single clipped laugh and motioned lazily to the table between them. "Sit. Let’s trade ghosts."

None of them sat.

She smiled wider.

"Old habits. Good. You’ll need them. Because the location in that drive? It’s real. Just not where you think."

Aya frowned. "Explain."

Dekra stretched, neck cracking. "Scorpio’s cache isn’t in Sector Nine’s vault. That’s just bait. The real site is beneath the burial level. Where the city records rot. Where Zodiac buried things that weren’t meant to be remembered."

"Coordinates?" Hernan asked.

"I have them."

He waited.

She tilted her head. "But I don’t hand out relics for free. Especially not to traitors."

"I left."

"I evolved," Dekra snapped. "You ran."

The shift in her voice cracked the air like a whip.

Aya stiffened. Dekra noticed.

She turned, finally registering Aya.

"Oh. So this one’s your replacement."

Aya’s expression didn’t change, but her spine straightened. Not defensive.

Judging.

"She’s my ally," Hernan said.

"That’s what we used to call each other too."

Iro’s eyes sharpened. "What do you want for the coordinates?"

Dekra stood, walked to the table, and tapped a thin black chip beside a pile of old Zodiac kill-tags.

"I’ll give you this," she said. "But only after you prove you’re still... you."

Hernan didn’t respond.

Aya stepped forward. "What does that mean?"

Dekra’s gaze found Hernan again.

"I want to see it. Dead Echo. Raw. Not filtered through some recycled rooftop footage. I want to see it happen. I want to see the monster they whispered about in the underlabs."

Aya’s voice dropped. "You knew about it?"

"I trained next to it."

Iro looked at Hernan now. Quiet. Focused.

Dekra’s voice turned soft — but it wasn’t kind. It was intimate. Like a blade stroking your cheek.

"Show me the thing they made you into, Vale. Or walk out blind."

Aya stepped closer. "Why now? Why help him at all?"

Dekra looked at her, just for a moment. Then back to Hernan.

"Because Scorpio’s preparing something worse than any of you have seen. And the only thing that kills a chain leader... is someone who used to wear one."

She tapped the chip one last time.

"If you want into the vault," she said, "you’ll need this..."

She smiled.

"...and a body count."

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