"This way! Hurry!", called Zhao, ripping open a heavy, rusted floor hatch that was hidden behind a pile of old server cases. A musty, cold draft hit them. "This is the old maintenance system of the magnetic levitation trains from the era before the great blackout. No sensors, no network. The Iron Duck will be blind down there."
Mei was the first to jump in, clutching her damaged hoverboard tightly under her arm. Lu helped Bao, whose heavy additional armor clanged loudly against the metal rungs of the ladder as he descended. Zhao looked back once more at his destroyed hall, spat on the ground, and followed them before locking the hatch from the inside. Just at that moment, the dull rumble of further explosions was heard from above. The syndicate reinforcements had arrived – but too late.
Once downstairs, Lu switched on the flashlight of his data pad. The beam cut through a darkness so dense it seemed almost tangible. They stood in a gigantic, circular tunnel. Ancient hyperloop tubes overgrown with moss and mushrooms stretched endlessly to the left and right.
Bao turned on his headlights. Two strong, blue beams illuminated the dust dancing in the air. "Acoustic analysis running... No active machine noises within a five-kilometer radius. However, I am detecting an unusually high concentration of organic molecules. Stored down here... old food components?"
"Impossible," murmured Lu as they cautiously advanced deeper into the tunnel. "Food supply has been strictly controlled by the megacorps for decades. Everything is synthetic. Where could that come from?"
After a twenty-minute walk through the eerie silence, the tunnel suddenly opened into a huge underground cavern. What Bao’s headlights revealed there took even Zhao’s breath away.
Before them lay the skeleton of a gigantic, crashed freight train from the last century. The wagons were torn open, but the permafrost of the deep earth had preserved the contents. Thousands of sealed containers were stacked there. Lu approached one, wiped the dust off the plaque, and read incredulously aloud: "Project: Ark. Real wheat grains. Dried chilies from original cultivation. Unrefined natural ingredients. Year of manufacture 2088."
Mei let out a quiet whistle. "This isn’t a junkyard, Lu. This is a goldmine. Real, unaltered food. The Iron Duck fights for power on the streets, while down here the cradle of culinary civilization rots."
Bao slowly rolled toward the containers. His lenses flickered in a rapid, almost euphoric rhythm. "Scanning DNA structure... The quality of these ingredients surpasses today’s synthetic products by a factor of $2400$. If we use these resources, we can not only reproduce Madame Sheng’s noodles – we can revolutionize the entire culinary culture of Neo-Chongqing. The Iron Duck has no chance against the taste of reality."
But the euphoria lasted only briefly. A deep, mechanical rumble vibrated through the floor of the cavern. It did not come from the pursuers from the upper city. Something else, something large that had been sleeping in this darkness for decades, had been awakened by the light and voices.